Hum by Verizon

Rebuilding an underperforming e-commerce experience ahead of a critical sales push.

Hum by Verizon promised connected-car safety, diagnostics, and location features for millions of non-connected vehicles. But data showed an alarming reality: online sales accounted for only 1% of total monthly sales, with projections at just 9.5% of the annual sales goal for the channel.

I joined the team shortly after this assessment to diagnose the breakdowns and rapidly rebuild the digital experience ahead of the HumSA (Self-Activated) launch and Black Friday sales window.

Role

Experience Design Director
Focus

UX strategy, funnel optimization, information architecture
Duration

8-week redesign + 3 month optimization period

Outcomes

↑1067% low funnel traffic

↑960% online sales

More Detail

The Challenge

The site wasn’t just underperforming, it was structurally failing.

The pre-launch workshop revealed the core issue: Hum.com was not functioning as a viable acquisition channel:

Online Sales at 1%

Online orders consistently represented just 1.0% of monthly Hum sales, far below expectations.

Missed Annual Target

At that trajectory, Hum.com was projected to achieve only 9.5% of its annual online sales goal.

Very Low Conversion

Only 0.15% of all visitors purchased, nearly all coming from earned media referrals.

High Interest, No Follow Through

Although site traffic reached 70–80k monthly, Hum.com generated only 2-6 sales per month.

Behavioral data showed a deeper structural challenge:

Only 13% Qualified Traffic

Just 13% of users had meaningful funnel actions, implying an unclear on-site consumer journey.

Weak Funnel Movement

Only 45% of qualified visitors moved into true “shopping” behaviors.

Insufficient Orientation

Visitors left the site to self-educate on connected car devices and never returned to purchase.

No Path to Confidence

Users explored features and Hum’s range of products, but had difficulty understanding what versions of Hum had which features.

What We Found

Four systemic breakdowns blocked comprehension, trust, and momentum.

Through analytics, session flow review, and competitive analysis, we identified four structural issues that explained why visitors weren’t moving through the funnel:

No Orientation to the Category

Users lacked basic understanding of connected-car devices, a gap underscored by fundamental buyer questions the site failed to answer.

Fragmented content and pathways

Product, feature, use-case, and pricing content lived in uncoordinated silos, creating churn instead of progression.

No adaptive intelligence

Despite 3–4 visits being typical before purchase consideration, the site treated every visit like a first.

Pricing confusion

Contract vs. subscription details were unclear and appeared too early in the purchase journey, overwhelming users before they understood the value.

Top-funnel traffic was strong. But, when users tried to learn more, they cycled around the site hunting for information.

The Strategy

Refocus the experience around education, clarity, and intent.

We re-architected and optimized the experience around a simple objective: Help visitors to quickly understand Hum and its value, then, buy with confidence and intent to use.

A new Product ~~Listing~~ Family Page

A net-new, central hub that educated connected-car devices, introduced Hum’s product family, and provided a linear path to education and buyer confidence.

User-flow remapping

A clearly plotted purchase funnel, integrating multi-channel and behavioral triggers pulling prospects into Hum.com and a purchase path.

Audience-based education

Use-case storytelling tailored to better defined target audiences: families, teen drivers, commuters, and small business owners.

Comparison and pricing clarity

Clear product differentiation and simplified contract/subscription messaging to reduce confusion, hesitation, and commitment barriers.

Make the site responsive to returning visitors

For high-intent and revisiting users, contextualized messaging, swifter pulls into cart and checkout.

Design & Delivery

Eight weeks from audit to launch

I led UX strategy and collaborated across analytics, research, content, creative, and engineering to deliver:

A rebuilt information architecture
Pricing + comparison frameworks
Site intelligence for revisits
Revised home and product detail pages
Better contextualized integration of testimonials and social content
Conversational, user-friendly UI and copy across the site

We moved from strategy → UX → design → copy → FE build → QA → launch in just 8 weeks, relaunching Hum.com in time for the HumSA release for Black Friday.

Infographic of the multiple journeys and users associated with the BlueEye app/platform.

Outcomes

Clarity and structure produced immediate uplift.

Sales performance improved dramatically, almost immediately (the relaunch also coincided with the launch Hum’s media buys for the holiday period):

3m 5s

Time on site

Up from 25 seconds

+1067%

Low funnel traffic

28%

Online share

Up from 1%

5.7

Pages per visit

Up from 2.3

32

online sales/mo

Up from 2-6 per month, still modest, but a meaningful improvement.

Reflection

Experience design created comprehension, but did Hum have value for drivers?

Retail sales represented the majority of Hum sales, but commission-driven upselling created buyer confusion, resulting in return rates as high as 44%. In contrast, online buyers who moved through our redesigned flow showed stronger activation and retention.

Our improvements clarified the experience, boosted engagement, and exceeded sales share expectations. But data revealed a deeper truth: Hum lacked a compelling, durable value proposition for modern car owners, no amount of UX rigor could change that trajectory.

Retail misalignment created confusion; product-market misalignment created regret. We fixed the funnel but the product itself was already losing relevance.

In Sept 2025, Verizon announced it was discontinuing Hum.