UX product design approach
My team works in a fast-paced, startup environment within the wider organisation. I currently oversee 7 UX design work-streams aimed at building digital solutions to meet agreed business outcomes – for a website that received over 16 million visits in 2022.
My role calls for a high degree of flexibility, leading teams in a variety of tasks, from launching white label products and ensuring integration with existing core engineering platforms, all the way through to planning future integrations as part of a 2023 digital strategy program.
I also contribute to the overall design strategy of dot com, working closely with product owners and leadership to shape the UX product design direction; for existing products we practice Agile Scrum to iterate on existing site modules. Finding that careful balance between build quality and speed of delivery; iterating on anything and everything to make incremental improvements in a discovery, delivery, deploy, measure process (and everything in-between, below), and a Insight—Design—Learn solutions loop.
In 2020, I originated and delivered an immersive ‘Viewing Room’ concept and transformed our auction highlights and Private Sales offering on dot com, helping to bring property to market earlier and contributing to an increase of 2.2 million users to the website (Feb-Dec 2020), including 63% new users.
In 2019, through a range of digital initiatives I reduced marketing print production by 75% by finding innovative ways to communicate with clients through automated CRM email and improved app features such as added transactional abilities and item follows.
Beyond my strategic and innovation work, I champion beautiful, simple user-centred design, focusing on the consumer first, their experience, as well as our business needs.
Data informed design
I collaborate with Digital Leadership colleagues to create and establish a new digital culture that champions data driven and client unsight led decision making. We use qualitative and quantitative data to lead our digital experience strategy.
I record analytics before, during and post event to forecast trends and adjust publishing timings, 33% of buyers are new to dot com, nearly 1/2 attracted via digital channels, we use analytics and a more in-depth screen record software to improve our UX/UI and site architecture over time.
In 2021, I worked on launching and optimising our e-commerce platform’s organic SEO ranking, following best practice guidelines and keyword search terms based on site-wide data analysis, making our e-commerce site’s performance optimised and mobile first, removing duplication, adding quality links and streamlining the site architecture to boost our search ranking.
Agile working
I have experience working in cross-functional teams using Waterfall (for first release), Agile Scrum (for sprints – 2-4 weeks) and Kanban (for continuous delivery) project management structures.
I’m currently responsible for the UX product design and content re-platforming of dot com and app, installing an iterative workflow across all work-streams, this process loop of Discovey, Delivery, Deploy, Measure contains a tried and tested 10 steps that focuses on outcomes rather then box ticking:
1. Insights & requirements gathering
User research, analytics, agreeing business requirements, competitor analysis
2. Framing ideation
How might we? Drawing up a page description diagram (PDD), agreeing project success metrics
3. Design exploration phase
Interviews, card sorting, wireframes, MVP’s, prototypes
4. Create a candidate design
A mid-fidelity design for signoff
5. Tech feasibility, accessibility and design review
6. Test & learn
User testing of prototype
7. Decision making
Agree on a design solution
8. Making it real
Production design including a definition of “done”
9. Dev hand off
Support / feedback loop
10. QA / UAT
Go / No-go and Go Live
Steps 4, 5 and 6 use an iterative learning loop of “Insight—Design—Test” using existing quantitative data, working closely with the business and our developers to iterate on our existing tokens and components.
