United Kingdom

UX Design

UI/ Visual Design

Product Design

UX writing

Branding

UX Testing

UX Research

BA Hons

GNVQ

Jay Townley

Experience Design Director

Product strategy

Qualitative research

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Leadership

Design systems

User research

Product roadmap

UserTesting

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

Confluence

As Experience Design Director, I lead the end-to-end user journey across Parcel2Go — from the first click to the final conversion (and everything chaotic in between). My job is to make sure we’re not just shipping features, but actually improving how people experience our products — and ideally not making them swear at their screen in the process.

What I actually do:

Lead and mentor an insanely talented UX and design team, keeping things collaborative, creative, and (mostly) drama-free.

Define and drive user journey strategies that align with business goals and don’t make users rage-quit.

Work with product, engineering, marketing, and other moving parts to make sure the customer experience doesn’t get lost in translation.

Oversee design projects from sketch to shipped, making sure they solve real problems — not just look pretty.

Act as a UX consultant for our white label clients and courier partners — helping them improve their journeys without needing a full redesign every five minutes.

Push for innovation, stay ahead of the curve, and make sure our design practice doesn’t fall behind the times.

Keep stakeholders informed (and occasionally impressed) by translating design strategy into plain English and clear results.

It’s a mix of big-picture thinking, small-detail obsessing, and keeping users at the centre — all while juggling meetings, metrics, and the occasional curveball.

In my previous role, I led a multidisciplinary team to develop customer-centric products, resulting in an average annual revenue growth of 30%, a 35% increase in mobile conversions, and significantly improved conversion rates among younger demographics. I implemented industry best practices, established a comprehensive product roadmap, and mentored junior UX/UI designers, fostering their professional growth. Additionally, I designed an acclaimed design system that generated over $16.7 million in revenue within its first year, covering services from private couriers to public postal services.

Through user testing, customer interviews, beta groups, and an A/B testing strategy, I gathered valuable insights into user preferences and business objectives. My leadership and mentorship expanded the team's capabilities, enabling them to tackle more complex projects and resulting in a 120% increase in work production over three years without increasing team size. I developed user experience strategies in collaboration with business stakeholders, ensuring the product suite's value and success were measurable through business-driven KPIs. By leveraging my deep understanding of market and consumer trends, I drove creative solutions that demonstrated strategic thinking, innovative design, and a seamless customer experience.

My expertise spans design research, user research, and accessibility, allowing me to create comprehensive customer journey maps and satisfaction research initiatives. I excel in data visualization and online research, which underpin my strategic planning and product design efforts. My proficiency in user flows, UX research, and journey mapping ensures that every project is grounded in solid design strategy and effective team enablement.

Dropped into a fast-paced finance environment, rolled up my sleeves, and rebuilt the UX culture from the ground up — making the digital experience less “bank circa 2005” and more “actually usable.”

Highlights include:

Drove a 39% boost in Net Promoter Score in six months (and a 15% average uplift across all brands) by making customer journeys suck less.

Increased site traffic by 275% and slashed cost per conversion by £867 — because good UX is great business.

Scaled the online chat team from 3 to over 50 because apparently people like talking to people.

Introduced design sprints before they were trendy, cutting project timelines by 30% and getting things launched faster (with fewer headaches).

Helped Ocean Finance hit its first £1M credit card month with a mix of UX magic and some solid CRO groundwork.

Recruited, trained, and led a team of UX specialists, building out tools and processes that turned “we think this might work” into “we know this works.”

Launched a proper intern programme to bring new design talent into the industry — because the next gen of UX legends aren’t going to train themselves.

It was fast, full-on, and seriously fun. I left it all better than I found it — stronger teams, smoother journeys, and digital products people could finally trust.

Joined the team at AO.com just as they were getting serious about UX — and helped build something smart, strategic, and genuinely customer-first (instead of just slapping “user-friendly” on a backlog ticket and calling it a day).

Here’s what went down:

Delivered a 9% uplift in conversion through actual UX practices (not just hunches and HiPPO opinions).

Co-led the launch of a new customer experience team focused on making the web journey less painful and more profitable — both on-site and off-site.

Developed and executed a device strategy based on cold, hard analytics — because one-size-fits-all doesn’t fit anyone.

Worked cross-functionally with analysts, strategists, designers, and developers to make sure insights didn’t get lost in translation (or in someone’s inbox).

Turned chunky research into clear direction — and helped the design team turn that direction into actual, functioning interfaces.

Helped roll out new site functionality across all devices, keeping UI consistent, optimised, and not hideous.

Ensured high design fidelity all the way from wireframe to live product — no weird surprises when it hit production.

Collaborated with strategy and insight teams to keep the customer journey simple, smooth, and obsessively tested.

It was the role where I really saw the power of data + design + not settling for “good enough.”

Brought into AO.com as part of a lean team of four to help overhaul and elevate the eCommerce experience — and ended up getting promoted to UX Design Team Lead after proving that design could be both beautiful and ruthlessly effective.

What I got stuck into:

Ran projects from scribbles on a whiteboard to high-fidelity mockups, version control, stakeholder sign-off, and straight through to HTML/CSS implementation (because full-stack-ish design was very much a thing).

Created multi-platform experiences across the board — from sharp re-targeting ads to full-blown campaigns for blue-chip brands.

Balanced UX thinking with UI polish: wireframes, prototypes, A/B tests, the works.

Worked cross-departmentally like a pro — collaborating with devs, marketing, content, and strategy to keep things on time, on point, and actually usable.

Put my GUI/UX analysis skills to use in everything from micro-interactions to entire purchase journeys.

Oh, and some of that work got featured in Smashing Magazine’s eCommerce showcase — not bad for a team of four.

This role laid the foundation for my promotion into UX leadership — and proved that good design doesn't just look nice, it makes money.

Jay Townley🇬🇧

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