Avast Secure Browser

Avast’s layer sat in the Security & Privacy Center. People didn’t understand many of its features, so they didn’t discover them or use them. Next to Chrome, the browser didn’t feel any different.

So we reworked the onboarding in the app, on phones and desktop, to lead people to the Security & Privacy Center and explain it. A tip points to the shield icon in the toolbar and names what sits behind it: Privacy Guard, VPN and Web Shield.

We were two designers and one researcher next to about five developers and three PMs, with one manager over all of us. Each PM owned one area and worked closely with the developers; we designers covered several areas at once. We got along very well with the developers and the PMs.

I was in the user interviews for every feature in this study. I ran some of them, but mostly I was there to take notes and ask the questions I needed answered.

The new tab worked like Chrome’s: pretty empty, with a search field and a few shortcuts. I turned it into a page people could make their own:

The tough part was keeping it useful without building a bloated browser. Everything customisable was off by default, so people chose what to turn on or off. Landing between clutter and too little took a lot of tries and user testing before I said it was good. It’s the part of this project I’m proudest of.

The VPN was Avast’s own VPN product, running inside our browser. I designed the full flow around a big on/off switch and a location picker. The Browser VPN was free and covered the browser. Paid features stayed visible but locked: more locations, Device-Wide VPN for every app on the phone, and a VPN report with speed and data over time.

We wanted the free VPN to feel like PRO. It worked right away, with no banners or warnings. The upgrade appeared only when you tried something specific, like switching to a different location.

Two parts of the browser lived outside its window.

On Android I designed a full set of home-screen widgets: tap to search, a switch to turn the VPN on or off, your favourite sites and privacy news.

On desktop, uninstalling the browser used to open a generic white window. I replaced it with a custom uninstaller that offers to repair the browser first and gives a discount on the Pro version. It also gathered more data for the team, a lot of numbers I can’t share.

Back then I thought making Repair the primary button, not Uninstall, was a bit of a dark pattern. People had already made up their minds; this was one last brake before they left. It was one of the times I disagreed with the PM, and the business metrics pushed me towards this version.

I designed for every platform the browser ran on: macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, all in Figma. Along the way I also designed an add-on store, like the Chrome Web Store but with extensions Avast had tested, and paste and go: when there’s a link in your clipboard, the browser offers a button to open it straight away. I started as a product designer and became a senior product designer.

There was a big variety. One day I was designing widgets for Android, the next an uninstaller for desktop, and another day the new Security & Privacy Center for every platform. Avast taught me a lot about craft: designing the same product for different platforms.