SwiftKey Keyboard for Android replaces the device’s on-screen keyboard to help users type faster and more easily. It includes SwiftKey Flow, a gesture typing method, and a triple prediction bar. In our latest release, we added the SwiftKey Store, where new themes can be found. We designed more than 30 beautiful new keyboard themes and a newly designed and improved flow trail. We also added an optional number row, an emoji panel filled with over 800 emoji, and emoji prediction. A big part of this project was the migration of our existing user base from a paid application to a free one. We modeled five user types with personas, scenarios, and prototypes that we iteratively tested for usability in order to get the migration messaging, gifting of a special “Premier Pack” of themes, theme discovery, purchase, and assignment correct.

This UX project helped transform SwiftKey Keyboard, the number one selling app in the Google Play Store in 2012 and 2013, to a free application available in 66 languages worldwide. The undertaking required a fundamental shift in the company’s business model, and mechanisms to both reward and respect a multi-million-strong user base. In addition to launching a new e-commerce component and substantial inventory, we added significant functionality to an already wildly popular and successful mobile utility that is consistently used by loyal and vocal users.