Safari Extension
I was lucky to work as a Product Designer alongside Harvard alum and talented CEO Mandela Patrick on a Safari extension that lets you try on any outfit from any website. This was my first time working on a Safari extension — but hey, there’s a first time for everything!
✍️ Challenge
The user interaction with the extension was smooth (check out the video below), but one challenge stood out — worthy of a little storytelling — a brutal iOS prompt that the user had to accept to get the extension working properly.
Brutal iOS Permissions
When I started testing Safari Extensions, I was shocked by the wording in iOS permission modals. No matter how much you explain to users that the extension won’t actually use their browsing history, the acceptance rate is still unlikely to be high.
Could Animated Emojis Do The Trick?
We tested several versions of copy highlighting the benefits and reassuring users that we don’t use private data — but engagement didn’t really improve. Eventually, we tried something simple: adding animated emoji fingers pointing at the iOS prompt. Not the most elegant solution 🙃 — but surprisingly effective.
Emoji Fingers Across iPhone Sizes
Designing emoji fingers to guide users in Mobile Safari sounds simple — until you deal with different iPhone sizes and Safari quirks. We had to pinpoint the exact spot for users to tap “Always Allow on Every Website” — a “fun” mix of pixel-perfect trial and error, responsive tweaks, and Safari-specific hacks.
Permissions: 21% 👉 44% After Fix
We let the data bake for a few days before checking Mixpanel. No rush — either it worked or it didn’t. Turned out it did. The fix more than doubled the permission rate.
✍️ Challenge
The user interaction with the extension was smooth (check out the video below), but one challenge stood out — worthy of a little storytelling — a brutal iOS prompt that the user had to accept to get the extension working properly.
Brutal iOS Permissions
When I started testing Safari Extensions, I was shocked by the wording in iOS permission modals. No matter how much you explain to users that the extension won’t actually use their browsing history, the acceptance rate is still unlikely to be high.
Could Animated Emojis Do The Trick?
We tested several versions of copy highlighting the benefits and reassuring users that we don’t use private data — but engagement didn’t really improve. Eventually, we tried something simple: adding animated emoji fingers pointing at the iOS prompt. Not the most elegant solution 🙃 — but surprisingly effective.
Emoji Fingers Across iPhone Sizes
Designing emoji fingers to guide users in Mobile Safari sounds simple — until you deal with different iPhone sizes and Safari quirks. We had to pinpoint the exact spot for users to tap “Always Allow on Every Website” — a “fun” mix of pixel-perfect trial and error, responsive tweaks, and Safari-specific hacks.
Permissions: 21% 👉 44% After Fix
We let the data bake for a few days before checking Mixpanel. No rush — either it worked or it didn’t. Turned out it did. The fix more than doubled the permission rate.
Client
Optimatik
Year
2025
Domain
Lifestyle, AI