MCAFEE VPN

Rethinking how invisible protection should feel clear and personal.

McAfee's VPN is a standalone service that's often packaged with other security services in their protection plans. As the product lineup evolved with regular updates, VPN was falling behind. A full redesign was initiated to address long standing pain points and outdated UI.

I was brought onto the newly formed VPN team to assist with initial research, feature planning, and end-to-end design implementation.

With Susanna Huang, Nina Wang, Jeffrey Jose & Jen Barrell.

Contributions

Design Documentation Component Creation

Prototyping

Workshop Facilitator

Timeline

Nov — Jan 2024

Tools

Figma + Figjam

VPNs are all about encrypting your online activities.

VPNs are all about encrypting your online activities.

VPN's do more than help you
watch European Netflix.

It's like driving a car with tinted windows.
By encrypting internet traffic and masking the users location, VPNs keeps online activity private from bad people that want to steal passwords, credit card details, or private messages.
And yes, it can also let you stream geo-blocked TV shows from other countries you normally can't see.

Name: Clayton Harding

IP Address: 2948JHDD387

Browsing history: Yep that too

UNKNOWN USER

PROBLEM

McAfee users struggle to understand what their VPN is supposed to do, making them unsure when to use it.

McAfee users struggle to understand what their VPN is supposed to do, making them unsure when to use it.

VPN's do more than help you
watch European Netflix.

"Nothing changed, how do I know it's working?"
Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it impossible to verify their value. Without a clear reason to use their VPN, subscription renewals frequently lapsed.

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McAfee's Current VPN design

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McAfee's Current VPN design

OPPORTUNITTY

We need to better communicate how our VPN is protecting the users privacy, contextual to their situation.

LONG TERM GOAL

We hypothesize that proper context will lead users to instinctively activate their VPN whenever they feel unsafe on a network.

EARLY APPROACH

Step 1

Fill our knowledge gap talking to subject matter experts.
and fill in the knowledge gaps we don’t have, back it with qual/quant data.

Step 1

Audit our existing flow, where can we do better?
and fill in the knowledge gaps we don’t have, back it with qual/quant data.

Step 1

Build around new flow, rapid fire prototyping.
and fill in the knowledge gaps we don’t have, back it with qual/quant data.

TALKING TO EXPERTS

I sat down with TunnelBear, a lead VPN service, to learn how they overcame a similar problem.

I sat down with TunnelBear, a lead VPN service, to learn how they overcame a similar problem.

VPN's do more than help you
watch European Netflix.

We narrowed our scope based on 3 key insights.
TunnelBear is partnered with McAfee, allowing us to draw on past explorations and high-level findings. We took note of shared problems and dived deeper into what explorations were abandoned and why, so we don't repeat the same mistake.
Our intention wasn't to imitate their product, but break down their approach into high-level themes we can explore when we design.

People need constant reassurance to know they're being protected. We accomplished this by animating our mascot bear to physically tunnel to a different VPN server and a big banner saying “You’re Safe”.

Visualize VPN working besides just being On?

Pulsing lights, timer, movement?

When VPNs get marketed they don't talk about all the tools capabilities, leading to a mismatch in what a person expects it to do, vs what it actually can do.

Many think it's just for watching geo blocked Netflix…

Provide better education to what VPN is capable of, without too much technical jargon

VPNs do more than flip ON/OFF. Server selection, Split tunneling, Kill switch, Auto-connect, DNS customization. Even if it's only popular for power users we need to make it accessible for them.

Personalize the VPN to our users needs (newbies and power users) by making it easier to find and set up advanced features like "split tunneling" or choosing trusted networks.

User flow breakdown

With our new insights, I hosted workshops to break down our current user journey and ideate where we can do better.

Turns out we're only educating what our VPN does before a purchase.

Turns out we're only educating what our VPN does before a purchase.

After we get your money, we ghost you.
After we get your money, we ghost you.
After we get your money, we ghost you.
This means there is no support for users who revisit VPN after they purchase, or had expected further guidance when setting up their VPN.
We quickly identified onboarding as needing the most improvements to solve for our North Star.

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Old: Showing information only before making a purchase

Improving the flow

Improving the flow

Rebuilding the flow to offer education early, and no longer hiding our advanced features.

Rebuilding the flow to offer education early, and no longer hiding our advanced features.

Additionally, we moved advanced tools from the settings page onto the home screen, making it easier for users to explore new features available without having to randomly come across them.

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New: Setup guides + spotlighting advanced features

Early design planning

Early design planning

Group sketching clarified our components and layout.

Group sketching clarified our components and layout.

I challenged my negative bias against sketching.
I challenged my negative bias against sketching.
I challenged my negative bias against sketching.
Sketching isn't normally part of my workflow, but it's a great tool to work more collaboratively with non-designers who aren't comfortable with Figma, letting everyone contribute their ideas.

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A few sketches that drove discussion

4 rounds of rapid sketches and wireframes.
4 rounds of rapid sketches and wireframes.
4 rounds of rapid sketches and wireframes.
This was important when helping our team align on the overall look and feel. After each round we voted on ideas that made the most sense and discussed how to combine or tweak those concepts into the final deliverable.
In the end, It clearly influenced our final designs. (compare below)

Interactive

V1 Sketch compared to final output

Our Solution

Our Solution

Fresh onboarding and core experience where help is always within reach.

Onboarding that caters to both power users and first-timers.

Onboarding that caters to both power users and first-timers.

Onboarding that caters to both power users and first-timers.

Setting context with motion to show it's working, and reassuring you're safe.

Setting context with motion to show it's working, and reassuring you're safe.

Setting context with motion to show it's working, and reassuring you're safe.

Unplanned small win (while we're at it) - Let's stop taking people out of the app when troubleshooting. Now everything stay in-app.

Unplanned small win (while we're at it) - Let's stop taking people out of the app when troubleshooting. Now everything stay in-app.

Unplanned small win (while we're at it) - Let's stop taking people out of the app when troubleshooting. Now everything stay in-app.

Testing with users

Clearing up confusion when picking a server for the first time.

Clearing up confusion when picking a server for the first time.

Clearing up confusion when picking a server for the first time.

"What does fastest mean? Where is this?"
"What does fastest mean? Where is this?"
"What does fastest mean? Where is this?"
On default new users are connected to the fastest server (typically the closest one) for the best possible first experience, but participants didn't associate the fastest connection with a physical location.
Users carried this uncertainty throughout onboarding, constantly second-guessing how they're connected, like a nagging "did I leave the stove on?" feeling.

Image

Old: Connect to fastest regardless of country

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New: Showing country + fastest indication

Personal reflection

Despite the hype, priorities changed and the revamp was shelved. But my learnings shipped.

Despite the hype, priorities changed and the revamp was shelved. But my learnings shipped.

Despite the hype, priorities changed and the revamp was shelved. But my learnings shipped.

Everyone hates reading, but they hate it less when you stop speaking like a business.
Balancing what we as a business want users to know V.S what a user actually wants to know is a difficult line. This project helped me learn how to use metaphors on boring language into legible content.
The value of sketching is to start a discussion, not to show a solution.
The value of sketching is to start a discussion, not to show a solution.
The value of sketching is to start a discussion, not to show a solution.
I typically jump into higher fidelity, but if I need to align a team on layout and abstract concepts, I’m now confident in running a workshop to rapid-fire ideas and align stakeholders from other teams.

Check out my other work!

Check out my other work!

© 2025 Clayton Harding

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