John Lewis & Partners: Elevating the Digital Retail Experience
At John Lewis & Partners, I honed the ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution—essential for design leadership. I tackled complex PDP and PLP challenges, optimizing information architecture, content hierarchy, and responsive design to enhance usability at scale. Working within constraints, I prioritized high-impact, data-driven improvements that boosted discoverability, engagement, and conversion. Collaborating across UX, UI, research, and development, I aligned stakeholders and drove execution while mentoring designers and advocating best practices. This experience solidified my ability to lead teams, scale design processes, and drive impactful, user-centred digital experiences.
John Lewis Beauty Redesign
The Challenge
John Lewis' static, desktop-only site created a frustrating mobile experience, forcing users to pinch, zoom, and swipe excessively. The Beauty PLP and PDP were particularly problematic, with key content buried too far down the page, limiting product discovery and engagement. A growing mobile audience expected a seamless shopping experience, but the existing design failed to deliver.
Users & Audience
We focused on John Lewis’ core customer base across devices, particularly the increasing number of mobile shoppers demanding a frictionless, intuitive experience.
My Role & Responsibilities
As the UX/UI lead, I drove the strategy and execution for a responsive redesign, collaborating remotely with designers and developers. Despite tight constraints, I ensured alignment across teams to deliver a scalable, high-impact solution.
Process & Approach
With just two weeks, I prioritized the most valuable improvements, leveraging:
Competitor benchmarking to align with industry best practices.
Heuristic analysis to uncover usability pain points.
Design pattern analysis to maintain consistency with John Lewis' digital ecosystem.
Our solutions focused on:
Enhancing product discovery through better grouping.
Refining messaging to improve conversions.
Introducing a product carousel for increased visibility.
Enabling favouriting directly from the PLP.
Strengthening cross-sell and up-sell opportunities with better navigation.
Outcome & Key Takeaways
Given the constraints, I prioritized impact over perfection, ensuring the redesign was robust, scalable, and aligned with user needs. This project reinforced my ability to balance strategic vision with rapid execution—driving measurable improvements even under pressure.
John Lewis & Partners: Optimising Product Activation for Higher Conversions
In 2017–2018, I collaborated with John Lewis & Partners on a strategic redesign of their Product Display Pages (PDPs) to improve product discoverability, decision-making speed, and purchase completion rates.
The Challenge
Despite launching a responsive website and mobile apps, John Lewis saw a decline in shopping efficiency. Users were struggling to make purchase decisions, leading to fewer basket additions and completed purchases. The goal was to refine the PDP experience to streamline decision-making, reduce friction, and drive conversions.
Users & Audience
The redesign had to support a diverse user base across devices, traffic sources, and shopping behaviours, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience at every touchpoint.
My Role & Responsibilities
As a senior contributor, I collaborated with UX and UI designers, driving data-informed decisions to balance usability with commercial impact.
Process & Approach
To uncover the root causes of conversion drop-offs, I took a research-driven approach:
Site Audits & Heuristic Analysis – Reviewed PDPs at different times of the day, analyzing entry points and user flows. Used the Wayback Machine to compare past layouts and identify elements affecting decision-making.
Identifying Key Issues – PDPs had become longer and harder to scan, key product details were deprioritized, distractions pulled users away from the purchase path, and CTAs were buried too far down the page.
User Research & Benchmarking – Competitor analysis and user interviews validated pain points, informing design improvements.
Solution Design
Restructured page hierarchy to surface key decision-making elements earlier.
Improved CTA placement to reduce friction and accelerate conversions.
Enhanced wish list functionality to increase deferred purchases.
Boosted social proof visibility to strengthen buyer confidence.
Introduced micro-interactions to create a more engaging experience.
Outcome & Lessons
While my engagement ended before usability testing and implementation, my work laid the strategic foundation for future iterations. This project reinforced the power of data-led decision-making, rapid hypothesis validation, and designing at scale to align user needs with business goals.
