MCAFEE VPN

Revamping McAfee's VPN to make invisible protection feel clear and contextual.

Overview

McAfee's VPN is one of many security tools, often bundled in protection plans. Over time, the tool had fallen behind as updates rolled out to newer products, and was not being maintained by a dedicated team.

To address long-standing pain points and it's outdated MVP, I assisted with early research, feature planning, and end-to-end designs.

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

CONTRIBUTIONS

Design Documentation Component Creation

Prototyping

Workshop Facilitator

TIMELINE

Nov — Jan 2024

TOOLS

Figma + Figjam

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it

"It's on, but nothing happened, is it doing something?"

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor.

We need to better communicate how our VPN is protecting the users privacy → contextual to when they use it. Over time, we hypothesize users will instinctively turn on their VPN when a connection feels unsafe. "This airport WI-FI seems sketchy, I should turn on my VPN, just in case"

PROBLEM

The MVP was starting to show it's age

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

Current VPN design

Current VPN design

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

"It says that it's on, but how do I know it's working? What is it even protecting me from?"

400+ people agree with this

OPPORTUNITTY

We need to better communicate how our VPN is protecting the users privacy → contextual to when they use it.

LONG TERM GOAL

We hypothesize that with proper context, users will instinctively

activate their VPN when a network feels unsafe

→

"This airport WI-FI seems sketchy,

I should turn on my VPN just in case"

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

This is statement number 3

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This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Image |

Current VPN design

This is statement number 1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 2

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This is statement number 3

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Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show value.

Going further

Side quest — Let's not make accessibility an afterthought

1/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur.