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Delivering app-first authentication experiences

Role - Product Designer @ Pizza Hut Digital

Platform - Web and App

Scope - Repurposing the platform offering for dine-in operations

Team - PM, Tech-lead/architect, CRO

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Summary

Following the successful Q1 2025 launch of Pizza Hut Digital’s e-commerce platform within the UK market, the restaurant-tech division sought to migrate their dine-in experiences onto this internal tech stack.

Operating as the lead designer within a dedicated product-discovery squad, I was responsible for the high-level scoping and definition of a 'Bring Your Own Device' (BYOD) experience. The primary objective was to leverage existing e-commerce design patterns to ensure cross-channel consistency, intentionally mitigating design debt by replacing opinion-led requests with evidence-based, scaleable solutions.

Problem

From a systems perspective, the existing restaurant infrastructure was a silo. Customers could earn-and-burn loyalty points online but hit a 'dead-end' when attempting to perform similar actions within a restaurant.

My objective was to identify high-impact dine-in use cases that could serve as blueprints for future e-commerce functionality and unify the pizza purchasing experience for Pizza Hut customers.

My role

Tasked with the scope and definition of Pizza Hut’s bring-your-own-device experience from a high-level, I performed the following actions…

  • Design analysis - Mapping the end-to-end service and performing a competitive landscape analysis to understand key pain-points and product-opportunities.

  • Design discovery - Developed and implemented a targeted research strategy to stress-test and validate core stakeholder assumptions.

  • Stakeholder management - Acted as the lead design advocate for the project that navigated complex stakeholder discussions to safeguard the integrity of the user experience.

  • Product mindset - Led the definition of a high-impact MVP that strategically prioritised core functionality to ensure a lean, rapid market entry that would incrementally adopt new features.

My goal was to provide high-impact, lightweight design assets that streamlined the handoff process. By defining core interaction patterns and edge cases early, I would enable the development team to move at pace, fostering a truly agile environment where design was a facilitator of speed rather than a bottleneck.

Approach

Understanding the user

Operating without a dedicated researcher in the squad, I took ownership of the discovery phase. I designed and executed a research plan to analyse user security habits and evaluate trust levels in existing biometric authentication.

This research plan consisted of…

  • Discovery interviews - To uncover qualitative insights into user experiences and frustrations with biometric authentication.

  • Card sorting exercises - To map and categorise user trust levels with different security mechanisms within their personal digital habits.

  • Usability testing - Testing prototypes that mirrored the SDK logic to identify friction points and misalignments with user expectations.

Analysis and play-back

To ensure that these research activities held value and weren’t a blocker to planned project-timelines, I communicated key findings back to the product and engineering teams.

These key-findings were…

  • Contextual barriers to FaceID - At the time of research (2021), FaceID faced a significant 'service failure' due to the global prevalence of face masks. Users consistently identified this as a primary friction point, leading to a decreased reliance on—and trust in—facial recognition as a primary authenticator.

  • Build trust - The automated nature of the inherited SDK created a 'system-led' experience that lacked transparency. By introducing 'intentional friction'—slowing the interaction to allow for contextual processing—we increased the probability of user compliance and strengthened the perception of their personal security.

  • Refining the linear approach - The inherited SDK enforced a rigid, linear sequence requiring both biometric and passcode enrolment. Research showed this 'all-or-nothing' approach caused significant drop-off among users hesitant to share biometric data.

    With the underlying bank security guidelines only mandating a passcode for compliance a non-linear flow would potentially empower users to choose their preferred authentication method without compromising security standards.

Design and collaboration

Providing choice

I explored two logical paths to balance security-compliance with user-autonomy. Collaborating with the development team, I ensured both options were technically viable within the SDK constraints, before creating and testing prototypes with users.

Testing Insights:

  • Mandatory Passcode First - This created a mental 'finish line' for users. Once the passcode was set, 54% ignored the biometric prompt, viewing it as a secondary, unnecessary task.

  • Optional Biometric First - By positioning the biometric capture as the initial interaction—but allowing an immediate 'Skip' to passcode—we achieved better engagement. Providing visual context (via copy) before the challenge was initiated reduced the skip rate to 38%, proving that users are more likely to adopt advanced security measures when the benefits are effectively contextualised and communicated to them.

Strategic foresight

Recognising that user trust is built over time, I mapped a 're-engagement' strategy for users who initially skipped biometric setup. By visualising these entry points within the app experience, I helped the team understand how authentication journeys could enrich experiences beyond this scoped piece of work.

This strategic foresight was particularly valuable as the squad inherited the Account Management domain at a later point to ensure a consistent and integrated user experience across the entire lifecycle.

Delivery

Engineering support

To ensure that the high-level strategy and core interaction patterns were effectively delivered to engineering, I produced production-ready specifications and proactively resolved any low-level edge cases that were discovered during technical stress-testing.

Design system adoption

Recognising that the device registration and login journeys were the primary touch-points with the brand, I identified a strategic opportunity to enhance the front-end personalisation capabilities.

By expanding the project scope to include a redesign of the login experience, I could ensure visual parity between the web and mobile channels.

As part of this, I developed a new, highly configurable button component that offered greater brand expression and flexibility than the existing system components could.

Outcomes and reflections

From a product perspective, there were many positives to take-away…

  • Product sales were successful and helped the value-stream meet and exceed its ARR targets.

  • The design achieved a 95% adoption-rate on project: with only 5% custom-changes needing to be made.

  • The flow where users could capture their biometric from inside of the app became a reality when the Account Management domain was adopted and owned by the value stream.

From a personal perspective…

  • I became a knowledge expert in the iOS and Material guidelines for mobile-native design.

  • My demonstration of the importance of ‘discovery research activities’ helped secure funding for a full-time researcher within the value-stream.

  • As the velocity of work increased on mobile, I helped hire and mentor a designer to take-over my web responsibilities.