The app today on the left, the redesign on the right.
Put the bill and the usage first
The bill to pay and your water usage move to the top of the home screen. Everything else steps back. The app opens on what people actually came to check.
Acque Padane
An unsolicited redesign of a utility app — spotting the UX that gets in people's way, and proposing something cleaner, faster, and more human.
- Role
- UX/UI, unsolicited
- When
- 2025
- What
- Self-initiated redesign · Utility app
Self-initiated concept. Not affiliated with, or commissioned by, Acque Padane — a personal UX exploration, shared to show how I think.
An app I use, and the friction in it
Acque Padane is the utility app people in my area use to manage their water service — bills, meter readings, notifications. I use it too, and every time I did, the same friction showed up.
So I did what designers do: I redesigned it, unprompted. Not to criticise the team behind it, but to practise the muscle that matters most — turning everyday friction into a clearer, calmer experience.
Where it gets in the way
- Core actions are buried
- Checking a bill or submitting a meter reading — the two things people open the app for — take too many taps to reach.
- Everything looks equally important
- Dense, undifferentiated screens with no hierarchy. When everything shouts, nothing is heard.
- Status is unclear
- It's hard to tell at a glance what's paid, pending, or overdue — the exact thing a utility app should make obvious.
- The tone is cold
- A service people depend on that reads like a form, never like something on their side.
The redesign
A focused rethink — same service, far less friction. Here's the direction.
Three decisions behind the redesign
The app today on the left, the redesign on the right.
Status you can read at a glance
A clear visual system for paid / pending / overdue — color, weight, and position doing the work, so the state of an account is legible in a second, not a scroll.
The app today on the left, the redesign on the right.
Calmer, human language
Microcopy rewritten to reassure instead of instruct. Plain words, clear next steps, and a tone that treats people like people — not case numbers.
What changes for users
- Fewer taps to the things people actually open the app for.
- Instant clarity on what needs attention — paid, pending, or overdue.
- A utility that feels calm and human instead of bureaucratic.
Hiring a product designer? Let's talk.
deepmaker0@gmail.com