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The first Slovo paywall was technically complete.
It loaded subscription packages, let the user select a plan, and could begin a purchase. It was also visually cold, overly spacious, and disconnected from the rest of the app.
The feedback was direct: “Why is this design so ugly?”
That was more useful than polite approval.
Slovo is a Russian learning app with a warm paper background, dark editorial typography, a red brand accent, rounded cards, and an expressive bird mascot. The original paywall looked like a generic commerce sheet placed on top of that experience.
I used Mobbin to study how polished mobile apps structure onboarding and subscription decisions. The goal was not to find a screen to reproduce. It was to understand which recurring patterns solved real comprehension problems.
I compared flows by asking:
Mobbin made the repeated patterns visible. It did not decide which patterns fit Slovo.
Several reference products used bold coral backgrounds and highly promotional layouts. Copying those choices would have produced something familiar and wrong.
Slovo’s core experience is deliberately calm. The learner sees one word, one example, and one next action. A visually aggressive paywall would promise a different product from the one the user had just experienced.
The redesign kept:
Pattern research improved the structure. Slovo’s product promise determined the expression.
A paywall mockup can display any price and promise. A production paywall has to represent the actual store products and access state.
Slovo’s custom SwiftUI design reads the current RevenueCat offering and localized StoreKit prices. RevenueCat evaluates the
The paywall therefore has to accommodate live content rather than a perfectly sized design string.
That became visible when one simulator returned a $79.99 annual value while App Store Connect showed the intended US price of $29.99. Hard-coding the desired display would have made the screenshot prettier and the implementation less trustworthy. The correct task was finding which StoreKit environment and product mapping supplied the value.
The onboarding paywall can be dismissed. The user can continue with the free daily word.
This was not added because closing buttons are common in Mobbin references. It came from Slovo’s product logic.
The app promises a small, low-pressure learning ritual. Preventing a learner from experiencing the first useful word would make that promise difficult to trust. Premium should represent the broader memory system—continued review, reading, audio, and widget-supported learning—not permission to understand the concept.
That decision also made the plan hierarchy easier to explain. The question is not “pay or get nothing.” It is “continue with one useful daily word or unlock the complete learning system.”
The same research method improved onboarding.
Slovo asks about level, interests, daily goal, and reminder time. Earlier versions risked feeling like a sequence of settings forms. I studied how successful onboarding flows break decisions into one clear question, preserve progress, and show why an answer matters.
The revised flow uses:
The mascot itself required a separate design system. Test feedback showed wings that looked like ears and a final pose with no visible arms. A canonical character reference and explicit emotional states fixed the continuity problem.
There are three levels of design reference:
The third level produced the useful work.
Mobbin helped me see that the paywall needed clearer hierarchy, that restore and legal actions were product-critical, and that onboarding should reduce cognitive load. RevenueCat ensured the final design remained connected to live products and entitlement state. User feedback ensured it still felt like Slovo..
Try Slovo on the App Store
It loaded subscription packages, let the user select a plan, and could begin a purchase. It was also visually cold, overly spacious, and disconnected from the rest of the app.
The feedback was direct: “Why is this design so ugly?”
That was more useful than polite approval.
Slovo is a Russian learning app with a warm paper background, dark editorial typography, a red brand accent, rounded cards, and an expressive bird mascot. The original paywall looked like a generic commerce sheet placed on top of that experience.
I used Mobbin to study how polished mobile apps structure onboarding and subscription decisions. The goal was not to find a screen to reproduce. It was to understand which recurring patterns solved real comprehension problems.
The Questions I Took From the Research
I compared flows by asking:
- Is value explained before price?
- Can users compare plans without reading a wall of text?
- Is the recommended option obvious without making the other option look invalid?
- Are free-trial and renewal terms visible?
- Can an existing customer find Restore Purchases?
- Is closing the screen possible without hunting for a hidden gesture?
- Does the paywall feel like part of onboarding?
- Does the visual hierarchy still work on smaller devices?
Mobbin made the repeated patterns visible. It did not decide which patterns fit Slovo.
Pattern Research Is Not Brand Research
Several reference products used bold coral backgrounds and highly promotional layouts. Copying those choices would have produced something familiar and wrong.
Slovo’s core experience is deliberately calm. The learner sees one word, one example, and one next action. A visually aggressive paywall would promise a different product from the one the user had just experienced.
The redesign kept:
- Slovo’s warm paper rather than a borrowed background color;
- the same serif/display relationship used on learning screens;
- the existing red accent;
- the corrected mascot artwork;
- rounded cards matching the daily word and onboarding; and
- concise outcome-focused copy.
Pattern research improved the structure. Slovo’s product promise determined the expression.
RevenueCat Kept the Design Connected to Reality
A paywall mockup can display any price and promise. A production paywall has to represent the actual store products and access state.
Slovo’s custom SwiftUI design reads the current RevenueCat offering and localized StoreKit prices. RevenueCat evaluates the
premium entitlement, recognizes an active trial, drives the package purchase, and restores prior purchases.The paywall therefore has to accommodate live content rather than a perfectly sized design string.
That became visible when one simulator returned a $79.99 annual value while App Store Connect showed the intended US price of $29.99. Hard-coding the desired display would have made the screenshot prettier and the implementation less trustworthy. The correct task was finding which StoreKit environment and product mapping supplied the value.
The Most Important Design Decision Was the Exit
The onboarding paywall can be dismissed. The user can continue with the free daily word.
This was not added because closing buttons are common in Mobbin references. It came from Slovo’s product logic.
The app promises a small, low-pressure learning ritual. Preventing a learner from experiencing the first useful word would make that promise difficult to trust. Premium should represent the broader memory system—continued review, reading, audio, and widget-supported learning—not permission to understand the concept.
That decision also made the plan hierarchy easier to explain. The question is not “pay or get nothing.” It is “continue with one useful daily word or unlock the complete learning system.”
Onboarding Needed the Same Treatment
The same research method improved onboarding.
Slovo asks about level, interests, daily goal, and reminder time. Earlier versions risked feeling like a sequence of settings forms. I studied how successful onboarding flows break decisions into one clear question, preserve progress, and show why an answer matters.
The revised flow uses:
- one decision per screen;
- visible six-step progress;
- large selectable cards;
- concise supporting copy;
- haptics for confirmation; and
- a consistent mascot state tied to the emotional purpose of each step.
The mascot itself required a separate design system. Test feedback showed wings that looked like ears and a final pose with no visible arms. A canonical character reference and explicit emotional states fixed the continuity problem.
What I Learned About Inspiration
There are three levels of design reference:
- Surface copying: reproduce colors, shapes, and composition.
- Pattern copying: reuse a common solution without checking whether the problem matches.
- Question extraction: identify why a pattern exists, then answer that question from your own product constraints.
The third level produced the useful work.
Mobbin helped me see that the paywall needed clearer hierarchy, that restore and legal actions were product-critical, and that onboarding should reduce cognitive load. RevenueCat ensured the final design remained connected to live products and entitlement state. User feedback ensured it still felt like Slovo..
Try Slovo on the App Store