Service UXSubscription UXConnected Products

All-In Plan for HP

HP's subscription already delivered ink and paper. The All-In Plan added the printer itself. I designed how the account handles a printer the customer doesn't own, and raised the open questions that came with it.

CONTEXT

The Plan Gained Something That Could Break

HP Instant Ink already delivered ink, toner and paper to millions of subscribers. The printer knows its own levels, tells HP, and supplies arrive before they run out. A consumable service, running quietly for years.

The All-In Plan added the printer itself. The customer no longer buys the hardware — they subscribe to it, closer to a utility company's equipment than to a purchase.

That changes what the account has to represent. A supplies plan has a balance, a cycle and a shipment. This one also has an object in someone's home: it ships, it prints, it breaks, it gets replaced, and eventually it has to come back. Every one of those is a state the interface has to be able to show.

The model was past its first MVP but still in testing, and several service rules hadn't been decided yet. The design work kept arriving at them before the business did.

My Role·Product Designer·Individual contributor on an agency team

CollaborationHP product, engineering, and QA

Problem: The customer had a mental model built over years of Instant Ink: things arrive when the printer says so. Introducing the hardware as a separate concept would have split that model in two.

Proposal: The printer appears as a shipment item alongside Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Paper — one tracking view, one place to look, whether what's moving is a cartridge or the machine itself.

Argument: The promise of the service is that the customer never has to think about logistics. Inheriting the existing pattern kept that promise intact for a category of thing it was never designed for.

Problem: A cartridge has two meaningful states: on its way, and here. A subscribed printer also has being set up, in use, failing, being replaced, and going back — and the account had nothing to represent the second half of that list.

Proposal: I extended the delivery screens to cover the printer's whole life. Each state tells the customer two things: what's happening, and what to do next. That includes the end of the plan, when the printer has to go back.

Argument: A consumable that never arrives is an annoyance. An object the customer doesn't own and can't account for is a dispute. The states exist to stop the account going silent exactly when the stakes are highest.

Open questions

The Printer Has to Come Back

Ink and paper could follow the rules Instant Ink already had. The printer couldn't: a cartridge gets used up, but a printer has to come back. Whenever a screen needed a rule that was still being defined, we brought the question to HP's product team.

Return
Question
When the plan ends but the printer is still at home, what does the account show, and what should the customer do?
Why it mattered
The customer never bought the printer. The plan ends, but the object is still in the house.
What changed
Return states carrying a visible next step.
Damage
Question
If it comes back broken, who pays — and how that gets established between customer, carrier and HP.
Why it mattered
Liability sits between customer, carrier and HP before any screen can say anything.
What changed
Handoff notes where the rule was still undecided.
Evidence
Question
Should the account record the printer's condition before it ships back (for example, a photo or a checklist)? If so, at which step?
Why it mattered
Without a record, every disputed return falls back on support.
What changed
Named states instead of assumptions.

HP answered some questions right away. Others were still being worked out and stayed outside our scope. That made it clear what we would design now and what HP would decide later. Asking early is what turned a gap into a decision instead of an assumption.

Outcome

It Shipped, Printer and All

The printer-included plan went live. Ink, toner, paper and the printer itself now move through one account: one shipment list, one usage view, one plan.

A tracking view where the printer is a shipment item alongside every consumable
Hardware states carried through the account rather than ending at delivery
Open service rules turned into named states instead of assumptions
Handoff notes for engineering and QA where a rule was still being decided

Reflection

What the Screens Made Visible

Designing screens can reveal product questions early, while they're still easy to settle.

When a subscription includes a physical object, the interface does more than list options. It has to show how the service works, step by step, and that reveals where rules still need to be written.

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