Surfshark Subscription Flow Redesign: Creating a Better Exit Experience
Time
Mar 2025
Tool
Figma
Role
User experience researcher
User experience designer
Skills
Wireframe
Prototype
User interface designer
User experience writer
Brief Intro
This project aims to enhance the overall user experience of canceling a subscription on Surfshark.
The Outcome
User Satisfaction Increased from 3/10 to 7.4/10
The Newly Add Unsubscribe Button Enhances Accessibility
The “Cancel plan” action is styled in red to clearly signal its importance and potential consequences. Using a high-visibility color for this destructive action helps users quickly identify it, make more confident decisions, and reduces the risk of accidental clicks.
Use a Friendly and Trustworthy Design to Encourage Users to Stay
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The tone of the message is revised to be warmer and more reassuring, helping users feel supported during the cancellation process.
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The key benefits of staying subscribed are clearly highlighted to reinforce the value of the service.
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Additional options—such as keeping the current plan or learning more about it—offer users more flexibility and reduce impulsive cancellations.
Use Accordion Layout to Improve Content Clarity
The accordion design organizes multiple cancellation paths in a compact, readable format. This reduces cognitive load and enables users to quickly find the method relevant to their subscription channel.
Offer Clear and Intuitive Support Choices
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Designed two contact methods: Email and Live Chat, giving users flexibility based on their support needs.
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Added supportive microcopy under each option to clearly communicate expected response times and set user expectations.
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Introduced a floating live chat button at the bottom-right corner to improve visibility and allow quick access to help without scrolling.
Re-engage Users with Thoughtful Messaging After Cancellation
A friendly tone combined with a reminder of remaining benefits and clear re-subscription options encourages users to reconsider and potentially rejoin. This approach keeps the door open for future engagement.
Before vs. After Cancellation Experience
Before
After
Business Insight 💰
From a business perspective, these improvements enhance user trust and ease of navigation, two key factors in subscription-based models. They reduce impulsive cancellations, improve customer satisfaction, and increase re-subscription likelihood. Ultimately, this builds stronger user-brand relationships in a highly competitive VPN market where credibility and user loyalty are critical for growth.
Research
What did users say?
Numerous users have reported issues canceling their subscriptions, including being charged even after successfully canceling.
Overall, It's a terrible experience for users 👎🏻
What did I find on the website?
No Visible Button to Cancel the Plan
Users are unable to find a clear or dedicated button to cancel their subscription, which creates confusion and uncertainty about how to proceed.
The Instruction Is Too Long to Find the Needed Information Quickly
Users struggle to scan and extract relevant steps due to the excessive length and poor content hierarchy of the instructions. This leads to frustration and may discourage users from completing critical actions.
The Text Reveals a Sense of Uncertainty
The instructions use uncertain language like ”“should”, which can be confusing or misleading for users.”
The Guideline Doesn’t Help Users to Solve the Problem
Users must leave the current page to find further instructions, creating additional barriers and interrupting the flow of task completion.
Problem Statement
How Might I Design a User-friendly Cancellation Experience That Also Encourages Users to Stay?
Journey Map
How Are Other Products Designed?
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One-step access to the cancel button (no redirection)
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No persuasive delay or hidden steps
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Provide different alternative options
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Uses retention strategies (offers, reminders of feature loss)
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Users maintain access until the current billing cycle ends
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Uses a web-only cancellation flow
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Highlights what users will lose by downgrading
Design Solutions
Pain points 😫
Design solutions 😄
No clear or visible entry point for cancellation
Add a prominently placed “Cancel Subscription” button in the main account
Instructions are too long and hard to scan
Use collapsible step-by-step guidance and short summaries for better readability
Uses vague language like “should,” creating uncertainty
Replace with clear, confident language like “Your plan will end on…”
Requires users to leave the current page to find more information
Consolidate all cancellation steps into a single in-page flow
Usability Testing
Five users participated in the usability test, completing three tasks and providing feedback through the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire.
Task 1
Find out how to cancel a subscription via the Apple Store.
Task 2
Cancel a subscription through the Surfshark website
Task 3
Locate Surfshark’s online customer support
SUS evaluation
68/100
The experience meets the minimum threshold for acceptable usability. However, the wide score range suggests that while some users easily navigated the process, others encountered usability issues.
User's satisfaction
7.4/10
Users found the experience generally positive, but noted issues like hidden support options and unclear cancellation steps.
How did users say?
Joe
The gray text of the cancel button made it seem inactive or not clickable.
Tina
The customer support option appeared quite far down the page , so it didn’t feel very noticeable.
Aaron
I hope there is a live chat option available.
Ru
It would be helpful if I could see how many days are remaining in my plan.
Iteration
Before
After
👍🏻 Reduce Hesitation
To improve clarity and reduce hesitation, the cancel option was redesigned using a bold red font to make it more noticeable. This change makes it easier for users to locate the option and clearly communicates that it is an important action, without disrupting the overall visual balance of the interface.
👍🏻 More Accessible
To improve support accessibility, I designed a floating live chat button that stays visible throughout the cancellation process. This allows users to instantly contact support without scrolling, reducing friction and providing timely help during critical decisions.
Before
After
👍🏻 More Clear and Transparent
I added the number of days remaining in the user’s subscription after cancellation.
This small change helps users better understand how long they can continue using the service, reducing confusion and improving transparency in the offboarding experience.
Next Step
Expanding the Lens on Offboarding UX
This project deepened my understanding that a great user experience doesn’t end at onboarding or daily interactions—it also includes how we guide users through the decision to leave. Offboarding is often overlooked, yet it plays a crucial role in shaping a user’s final impression and long-term product perception.
Moving forward, I aim to explore how leading digital product designers design their cancellation and exit flows to retain users and leave them clarity, control, and respect. I plan to conduct comparative research on offboarding strategies across industries, analyzing the balance between business goals and user autonomy. This will inform more empathetic, transparent, and strategic UX practices for end-of-journey touchpoints.
