How a Data‑Driven 9.0 Redesign Transformed the Vivo App Store Experience

Introduction

The app store business has entered a mature stage, making redesign difficult; it must satisfy a wide range of users while keeping commercial distribution efficiency stable.

Project Background

Why launch the 9.0 redesign? Previous visual upgrades (UI 9.0, creative exploration) failed to launch due to declining commercial data. The store had not seen a major redesign for three years, with version 8.x approaching 9.0.

Two main challenges were identified:

Diverse user groups – young users seek surprise and fun, older users need safety and ease of use.

Maintaining stable commercial distribution efficiency while meeting broad user needs.

Design Goal Derivation

Experience‑measurement models highlighted low scores in attractiveness, novelty, simplicity, and consistency. These aligned with earlier qualitative research.

Business‑side 9.0 plan focused on four pillars: solid basic experience, expanded service boundaries, personalized per‑user groups, and building expectations.

#01 Framework Optimization

Homepage issues: unclear demand paths, scattered categories, weak operability. After competitive analysis, a parallel‑split structure with tab navigation was chosen. Key actions:

Move the main entry to a bottom tab to emphasize hierarchy.

Shift categories to the bottom tab, promote ranking to the top tab.

Lower the top banner to highlight the search entry.

Resulting layout clarifies primary and secondary paths, strengthens category weight, and reserves top‑tab space for flexible operations.

#02 Global Decision‑Information Optimization

Decision information was reorganized into essential (icon, title) and attractive (awards, rankings, benefits) groups, then prioritized into three layers:

Top layer – authoritative awards and rankings, emphasized visually.

Middle layer – curated comments and benefits to boost download motivation.

Bottom layer – tags for quick game‑type identification.

These rules were applied both in list and detail pages to help users make faster, more confident download decisions.

#03 Brand Image Rebuild

Three aspects were addressed: consistency, attractiveness, and novelty.

Consistency – aligned the store’s visual style with the OS (originOS 2.0) while respecting product‑specific constraints, enhancing perceived officialness.

Attractiveness – refined container designs using Gestalt principles, creating clearer hierarchy, richer visual cues, and scene‑specific layouts (e.g., game‑focused containers).

Novelty – introduced new motion curves and physics‑based animations across key interactions, delivering smoother, more engaging transitions.

Results

Post‑launch metrics showed significant improvements: reduced operation steps, higher click‑through and flip‑rate, and notable gains in the previously low‑scoring attributes (attractiveness, novelty, simplicity, consistency). The redesign delivered both product‑level and business‑level benefits, though further validation of design impact is ongoing.

Conclusion

The 9.0 redesign combined functional, visual, and interaction upgrades, proving that a scientific, user‑centred approach can revitalize a mature app store and drive measurable performance gains.