Superdrug Digital Transformation
From fragmented journeys to a scalable, research-led digital ecosystem
A Transformation Project, Not a Redesign
Superdrug needed a clearer way to identify friction, decide what mattered, deliver improvements through legacy technology and measure change across a connected ecommerce ecosystem. As UX Manager and hands-on UX/UI lead, I owned the roadmap, research direction and visual design of complex journeys, and built Superdrug’s first component library.
The work moved UX from reacting to individual tickets towards proactively identifying and validating opportunities. The transformation remains in progress, but the programme was associated with measurable changes in conversion, checkout behaviour, navigation engagement and UX maturity.
Context and team
The core UX team was myself and a junior UX designer, whom I managed. I led strategy, research, complex flows, visual direction and the design system; the junior designer owned smaller projects and supported larger programmes. I steered the external app agency and connected UX with Trading, CRO, product, business analysis and engineering. Implementation remained with the wider delivery team.
Add to basket rate YOY
Checkout conversion
Order & Collect adoption
Mobile-navigation engagement
Building UX Maturity
Superdrug’s Baymard benchmark moved from “poor” to “decent”, representing the strongest year-on-year improvement across the A.S. Watson business units. This reflected broader progress in research-led prioritisation, journey consistency, accessibility and continuous measurement, not one isolated redesign.
Maturity key
UX Maturity Journey | Baymard Scale
Website & digital experience for Superdrug
A Transformation Project, Not a Redesign
Superdrug needed a clearer way to identify friction, decide what mattered, deliver improvements through legacy technology and measure change across a connected ecommerce ecosystem. As UX Manager and hands-on UX/UI lead, I owned the roadmap, research direction and visual design of complex journeys, and built Superdrug’s first component library.
The work moved UX from reacting to individual tickets towards proactively identifying and validating opportunities. The transformation remains in progress, but the programme was associated with measurable changes in conversion, checkout behaviour, navigation engagement and UX maturity.
Context and team
The core UX team was myself and a junior UX designer, whom I managed. I led strategy, research, complex flows, visual direction and the design system; the junior designer owned smaller projects and supported larger programmes. I steered the external app agency and connected UX with Trading, CRO, product, business analysis and engineering. Implementation remained with the wider delivery team.
Add to basket rate YOY
Checkout conversion
Order & Collect adoption
Mobile-navigation engagement
Building UX Maturity
Superdrug’s Baymard benchmark moved from “poor” to “decent”, representing the strongest year-on-year improvement across the A.S. Watson business units. This reflected broader progress in research-led prioritisation, journey consistency, accessibility and continuous measurement, not one isolated redesign.
Maturity key
UX Maturity Journey | Baymard Scale
Website & digital experience for Superdrug
A Transformation Project, Not a Redesign
Superdrug needed a clearer way to identify friction, decide what mattered, deliver improvements through legacy technology and measure change across a connected ecommerce ecosystem. As UX Manager and hands-on UX/UI lead, I owned the roadmap, research direction and visual design of complex journeys, and built Superdrug’s first component library.
The work moved UX from reacting to individual tickets towards proactively identifying and validating opportunities. The transformation remains in progress, but the programme was associated with measurable changes in conversion, checkout behaviour, navigation engagement and UX maturity.
Context and team
The core UX team was myself and a junior UX designer, whom I managed. I led strategy, research, complex flows, visual direction and the design system; the junior designer owned smaller projects and supported larger programmes. I steered the external app agency and connected UX with Trading, CRO, product, business analysis and engineering. Implementation remained with the wider delivery team.
Add to basket rate YOY
Checkout conversion
Order & Collect adoption
Mobile-navigation engagement
Building UX Maturity
Superdrug’s Baymard benchmark moved from “poor” to “decent”, representing the strongest year-on-year improvement across the A.S. Watson business units. This reflected broader progress in research-led prioritisation, journey consistency, accessibility and continuous measurement, not one isolated redesign.
Maturity key
UX Maturity Journey | Baymard Scale
Website & digital experience for Superdrug
UX Strategy and operation model
I led the move from a reactive execution function towards a more proactive, journey-based UX practice. I began by collecting the active tickets across each project, understanding the business need behind them and creating visibility of work that had previously been considered in isolation. I organised oversight into verticals by template and flow, with a roadmap for each area. This connected immediate business priorities to a longer-term experience direction and gave research a clearer role in deciding what should enter delivery.
UX Strategy and operation model
I led the move from a reactive execution function towards a more proactive, journey-based UX practice. I began by collecting the active tickets across each project, understanding the business need behind them and creating visibility of work that had previously been considered in isolation. I organised oversight into verticals by template and flow, with a roadmap for each area. This connected immediate business priorities to a longer-term experience direction and gave research a clearer role in deciding what should enter delivery.
UX Strategy and operation model
I led the move from a reactive execution function towards a more proactive, journey-based UX practice. I began by collecting the active tickets across each project, understanding the business need behind them and creating visibility of work that had previously been considered in isolation. I organised oversight into verticals by template and flow, with a roadmap for each area. This connected immediate business priorities to a longer-term experience direction and gave research a clearer role in deciding what should enter delivery.
Complex customer journeys
Across checkout, basket and navigation, customers needed clearer signals about what they could do next. Delivery also had to account for fulfilment, availability, promotions, payment requirements and legacy logic. I led the research, interaction design and visual design for these complex journeys, working with business analysts and engineering to turn the experience direction into achievable releases.
Complex customer journeys
Across checkout, basket and navigation, customers needed clearer signals about what they could do next. Delivery also had to account for fulfilment, availability, promotions, payment requirements and legacy logic. I led the research, interaction design and visual design for these complex journeys, working with business analysts and engineering to turn the experience direction into achievable releases.
Complex customer journeys
Across checkout, basket and navigation, customers needed clearer signals about what they could do next. Delivery also had to account for fulfilment, availability, promotions, payment requirements and legacy logic. I led the research, interaction design and visual design for these complex journeys, working with business analysts and engineering to turn the experience direction into achievable releases.
Design system and scalable delivery
When I joined, the experience depended on legacy UI with no clear documentation of recurring components or flows. I built Superdrug’s first component library and used it to support reusable landing-page patterns, improving consistency while accommodating Trading and supplier requirements. I advocated for accessibility before it became a formal delivery requirement. A later external audit identified 54 issues and gave the business evidence for prioritisation. We added an AA/AAA-conscious colour palette, screen-reader labels and visible focus states to reusable components. This did not make the entire site fully compliant, but it made accessibility a more consistent delivery consideration. Next, we are using Codex to create and bind semantic tokens to the component library, improving consistency and production efficiency. This work remains in progress.
Design system and scalable delivery
When I joined, the experience depended on legacy UI with no clear documentation of recurring components or flows. I built Superdrug’s first component library and used it to support reusable landing-page patterns, improving consistency while accommodating Trading and supplier requirements. I advocated for accessibility before it became a formal delivery requirement. A later external audit identified 54 issues and gave the business evidence for prioritisation. We added an AA/AAA-conscious colour palette, screen-reader labels and visible focus states to reusable components. This did not make the entire site fully compliant, but it made accessibility a more consistent delivery consideration. Next, we are using Codex to create and bind semantic tokens to the component library, improving consistency and production efficiency. This work remains in progress.
Design system and scalable delivery
When I joined, the experience depended on legacy UI with no clear documentation of recurring components or flows. I built Superdrug’s first component library and used it to support reusable landing-page patterns, improving consistency while accommodating Trading and supplier requirements. I advocated for accessibility before it became a formal delivery requirement. A later external audit identified 54 issues and gave the business evidence for prioritisation. We added an AA/AAA-conscious colour palette, screen-reader labels and visible focus states to reusable components. This did not make the entire site fully compliant, but it made accessibility a more consistent delivery consideration. Next, we are using Codex to create and bind semantic tokens to the component library, improving consistency and production efficiency. This work remains in progress.
Lean UX Research
I established a lean model that separated discovery from validation so that each research activity answered a clear decision. Discovery combined business requests with heuristic reviews, competitor benchmarking, journey analysis and targeted usability testing to identify where friction mattered most and inform the roadmap. Validation used usability testing to examine proposed improvements, followed by post-launch behavioural measurement to understand how the resulting journeys were being used. This allowed us to conduct research purposefully and influence decisions without waiting for large standalone research programmes. Forty-five usability tests were referenced during H2 2025 across the wider programme.
Lean UX Research
I established a lean model that separated discovery from validation so that each research activity answered a clear decision. Discovery combined business requests with heuristic reviews, competitor benchmarking, journey analysis and targeted usability testing to identify where friction mattered most and inform the roadmap. Validation used usability testing to examine proposed improvements, followed by post-launch behavioural measurement to understand how the resulting journeys were being used. This allowed us to conduct research purposefully and influence decisions without waiting for large standalone research programmes. Forty-five usability tests were referenced during H2 2025 across the wider programme.
Lean UX Research
I established a lean model that separated discovery from validation so that each research activity answered a clear decision. Discovery combined business requests with heuristic reviews, competitor benchmarking, journey analysis and targeted usability testing to identify where friction mattered most and inform the roadmap. Validation used usability testing to examine proposed improvements, followed by post-launch behavioural measurement to understand how the resulting journeys were being used. This allowed us to conduct research purposefully and influence decisions without waiting for large standalone research programmes. Forty-five usability tests were referenced during H2 2025 across the wider programme.
What changed beyond the screens
UX moved from responding mainly to incoming demand towards proactively identifying friction and shaping what entered the roadmap. Research became more closely connected to prioritisation, accessibility entered reusable patterns and measurement became part of deciding what to improve next. The transformation remains incomplete: limited capacity, competing priorities and technical dependencies still influence what can be delivered and when. With more organisational support, I would protect capacity for accessibility, reusable patterns and continuous improvement earlier in planning. The main achievement was a repeatable way to identify, research, prioritise, deliver and improve the experience—not simply more redesigns.
What changed beyond the screens
UX moved from responding mainly to incoming demand towards proactively identifying friction and shaping what entered the roadmap. Research became more closely connected to prioritisation, accessibility entered reusable patterns and measurement became part of deciding what to improve next. The transformation remains incomplete: limited capacity, competing priorities and technical dependencies still influence what can be delivered and when. With more organisational support, I would protect capacity for accessibility, reusable patterns and continuous improvement earlier in planning. The main achievement was a repeatable way to identify, research, prioritise, deliver and improve the experience—not simply more redesigns.
What changed beyond the screens
UX moved from responding mainly to incoming demand towards proactively identifying friction and shaping what entered the roadmap. Research became more closely connected to prioritisation, accessibility entered reusable patterns and measurement became part of deciding what to improve next. The transformation remains incomplete: limited capacity, competing priorities and technical dependencies still influence what can be delivered and when. With more organisational support, I would protect capacity for accessibility, reusable patterns and continuous improvement earlier in planning. The main achievement was a repeatable way to identify, research, prioritise, deliver and improve the experience—not simply more redesigns.
Explore the work through research-led decisions, clearer customer journeys and scalable design foundations.
Explore the work through research-led decisions, clearer customer journeys and scalable design foundations.
Explore the work through research-led decisions, clearer customer journeys and scalable design foundations.
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