Lead Product Designer (IC · Leadership) · The AA · 2025

Designing High-Impact Hero Surfaces at Scale

As Lead Product Designer, I set the direction for the product’s most visible experiences. I defined hero patterns that balanced brand expression and clear user direction, while coaching designers to make confident decisions that shaped the customer journey from the very first interaction.

Design Direction at a Glance

Focus

High-impact hero sections across landing pages and key journeys, where first impressions and trust matter most.

Role

Led design standards, reviewed work, coached three designers, and made critical trade-offs between brand, clarity, and usability.

Impact

Created a shared visual language, established repeatable hero patterns, and increased team confidence in making design decisions independently.

Selected Hero Surfaces

These surfaces are presented in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent iterations. They illustrate how the design system and visual language evolved over time in response to constraints, learnings, and product maturity, while highlighting the leadership decisions that guided the team.

Hero with white background using yellow highlights and secondary blue accents to guide customers to key information and actionable elements Expand image
Guide customers’ eyes to key information using colour. I directed colour experiments and coached the team to prioritise hierarchy over decoration. Earlier designs diluted focus, so we refined contrast and emphasis to match real scanning behaviour.
Hero promoting a new-customer gift card incentive for breakdown cover, aligned with the 'It’s OK' campaign brand Expand image
Make the value of a gift card incentive instantly clear. I led decisions to balance campaign tone with clarity across channels. Early concepts over-explained the offer, so we simplified messaging to ensure immediate recognition and compliance.
Hero for a prize draw offering a chance to win a Jurassic World experience in France, merging campaign messaging with brand elements Expand image
Communicate a prize draw clearly when discounts aren’t available. I guided the team to balance two brand guidelines while keeping the proposition immediately understandable. With no price incentive, clarity of the reward became the primary driver of engagement.
Black Friday hero emphasizing offer with blue accents and yellow call-to-action Expand image
Create a bold, high-impact Black Friday hero. I supported the team in embracing bolder brand expression while protecting clarity. Heatmaps showed users skimmed heavily, so hierarchy, contrast and CTA visibility were prioritised over visual complexity.
Homepage hero banner combining a promotional offer and Which? trust badge in a compact, scannable layout Expand image
Combine promotional value with trusted Which? signals. I coached the team to balance two high-performing messages in a single, scannable layout. Historically, offers drove performance during promotions, while trust badges led outside them—this design tested whether both could coexist without slowing comprehension.
Homepage hero banner with a simplified, scannable promotional message highlighting a bold discount Expand image
Surface the strongest offer immediately for fast scanners. I led simplification efforts after heatmaps and session replays showed users often missed key details. The hero was restructured to communicate value instantly, relying on the journey to provide depth later.
Homepage hero banner testing a new blue secondary brand colour alongside Which? Recommended trust badges Expand image
Introduce a new secondary brand colour without disrupting trust. I directed controlled testing in a high-impact hero, where Which? badges were already proven. This allowed the team to isolate colour impact while maintaining clarity and credibility.
Homepage hero banner displaying five Which? Recommended badges highlighting five consecutive years of recognition for breakdown cover Expand image
Reinforce credibility with Which? Recommended badges. I coached the team to balance visibility and conversion while highlighting five consecutive years of recognition. Earlier attempts to reduce badge prominence underperformed, requiring careful hierarchy rather than removal.

Why Hero Surfaces Matter

Hero surfaces are often the first experience customers have with a product. Many arrive via search or advertising, so the hero must instantly communicate trust, clarity, and relevance. Design must guide the eye, deliver the offer, and maintain brand integrity without creating visual noise.

  • First impressions shape customer trust.
  • Hero areas carry commercial pressure and attract stakeholder attention.
  • Effective heroes communicate value clearly; poor ones confuse users.

Designing these heroes meant leading the team to ensure every surface immediately built trust, reinforced the brand, and supported the start of the customer journey.

Design Principles I Set

  • Visual hierarchy over decoration – every element must earn its space.
  • Brand expression supports clarity – boldness is valuable only if it doesn’t confuse users.
  • Data informs, craft decides – insights guide decisions, but aesthetics and hierarchy shape the first impression.

Key Design Decisions

  • Simplified instead of selling harder: removed visual clutter to focus attention on what matters.
  • Pushed back on visual noise: resisted unnecessary graphics or text that could dilute clarity.
  • Prioritised clarity over novelty: experiments are valuable, but comprehension comes first.

Coaching & Craft Leadership

High-impact hero design relies on both skill and confidence. I coached designers to make deliberate trade-offs, review work critically, and approach every decision with intent.

  • Frequent reviews: iterative feedback sessions ensured the team moved quickly without uncertainty.
  • Tailored coaching: identified strengths and growth areas for each designer, enabling ownership of work.
  • Outcome: designers became independent, improved visual decision-making, and delivered high-impact heroes consistently.

Impact

  • More coherent, scannable hero sections across the product.
  • Reduced visual clutter and aligned stakeholders effectively.
  • Designers gained confidence and autonomy in decision-making.
  • Established a shared design language and repeatable hero patterns for future work.

Learnings & Taste Evolution

  • Refined judgement on balancing brand expression and clarity.
  • Strengthened instincts for user scanning patterns and hierarchy.
  • Learned to communicate high-stakes design decisions clearly to designers and stakeholders alike.