I’m a people-centric prblem solver

Joe Tao / Product Designer in London / Growth UX, AI flows, commerce systems, cross-market services

Selected work

Dēpology Design System

I turned repeated mobile shopping hesitation into clearer navigation, buybox, cart, checkout, and reusable product-page rules for a scaling skincare brand.

  • Years2025
  • RoleProduct Designer
  • ScopeCommerce UX, design system, handoff rules
  • Result2x checkout conversion, 50% lower cart abandonment
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Dēpology mobile commerce design system preview

Explainable Property Search

I designed an AI property search flow that turns natural language into editable filters, match reasons, and clearer user control.

  • Years2026
  • RoleProduct Designer
  • ScopeTechnical UX, search logic, moderated testing
  • ResultFaster tasks, fewer query rewrites, higher confidence
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Black and white wireframe preview for Explainable Property Search

Travel to Qin

I rebuilt a travel sales page around trust before enquiry, using destination context, itinerary proof, service clarity, and CMS-ready content blocks.

  • Years2024
  • RoleProduct Designer
  • ScopeWebsite UX, brand system, CMS build
  • ResultClearer international-facing sales surface
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Travel to Qin responsive website preview

Worldschooling

I narrowed a large booking-platform vision into a launchable path for parents to compare programmes, judge fit, and place a deposit.

  • Years2025
  • RoleProduct Designer
  • ScopeRelease scope, journey design, visual system
  • ResultLaunch-ready education travel decision path
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Worldschooling homepage redesign preview

Nihao Serica

I shaped an unfinished cross-cultural web direction to explore trust, tone, hierarchy, and brand application for China-facing service audiences.

  • Years2024
  • RoleProduct Designer
  • ScopeWeb direction, visual hierarchy, brand logic
  • ResultCapability marker for international service design
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Nihao Serica web experience cover preview

TUTU Future

I built a playful education identity system across logo, palette, mascot, poster language, and reusable campaign templates.

  • Years2024
  • RoleBrand Designer
  • ScopeIdentity system, campaign assets, templates
  • ResultFlexible brand kit for youth education campaigns
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TUTU Future logo design grid preview

Experience and education

Experience

TUTU VIEW

Owned end-to-end design across three cross-border DTC platforms, taking ambiguous venture goals from discovery, IA, and UX flows through to developer handoff, optimisation, and launch. Built component libraries, token systems, and rapid prototyping SOPs with Figma MCP and Claude Code, reducing delivery cycle by 70%, build time by 40%, and monthly creative overhead by £2000+. Analysed 400+ user sessions, heatmaps, heuristic signals, and behavioural patterns to define IA changes and three conversion opportunities.

Dēpology

Led a research-led full-funnel redesign across product, cart, and checkout journeys using heatmaps, session recordings, and cohort analysis, doubling checkout CVR across two product launches. Built reusable commerce components, documentation, and handoff SOPs for offer hierarchy, buybox states, cart patterns, and checkout behaviours, reducing production time by 30%. Connected landing-page UX, ad promise, and user perception in a Research-UI-Ads testing framework, compressing test cycles from two weeks to four days and contributing to a 50% reduction in cart abandonment.

Travel to Qin

Led traveller research through interviews, focus groups, and field studies, translating findings into a 20-page mobile wireframe with navigation flow, information hierarchy, and scalable design patterns. Designed high-fidelity prototypes, facilitated Shopify and WordPress handoff, and built an internal CMS for content and supplier-side publishing, cutting development cycle by 50% and labour cost by 30% through reusable templates.

manila.design

Led UX research for a B2C website using interviews and Google Analytics, identifying seven conversion blockers and translating them into personas, journey improvements, and product-to-checkout redesigns that contributed to a 10% drop-off reduction. Built reusable UI patterns across product, content, and checkout journeys, then collaborated with developers on responsive production handoff.

Quadtalent

Took UI ownership mid-project under pressure, self-taught front-end basics in three days, and shipped an enterprise website with minimal engineering revision through multi-layered approvals. Designed B2B enterprise UI, dashboard patterns, and 12 data-visualisation slides for C-suite presentations.

Education

University College London

Distinction. Research published at ACM CHIWORK '25 and invited to pitch findings to Google via UCL Interaction Centre.

University of Leeds

First Class. Thesis with Distinction selected for New Designers 2023 and published on Dezeen Magazine.

  • #Product UX
  • #Research
  • #Design systems
  • #Conversion
  • #AI workflows
  • #Handoff
EXPERIENCE

Experience

TUTU VIEW

Owned end-to-end design across three cross-border DTC platforms, taking ambiguous venture goals from discovery, IA, and UX flows through to developer handoff, optimisation, and launch. Built component libraries, token systems, and rapid prototyping SOPs with Figma MCP and Claude Code, reducing delivery cycle by 70%, build time by 40%, and monthly creative overhead by £2000+. Analysed 400+ user sessions, heatmaps, heuristic signals, and behavioural patterns to define IA changes and three conversion opportunities.

Dēpology

Led a research-led full-funnel redesign across product, cart, and checkout journeys using heatmaps, session recordings, and cohort analysis, doubling checkout CVR across two product launches. Built reusable commerce components, documentation, and handoff SOPs for offer hierarchy, buybox states, cart patterns, and checkout behaviours, reducing production time by 30%. Connected landing-page UX, ad promise, and user perception in a Research-UI-Ads testing framework, compressing test cycles from two weeks to four days and contributing to a 50% reduction in cart abandonment.

Travel to Qin

Led traveller research through interviews, focus groups, and field studies, translating findings into a 20-page mobile wireframe with navigation flow, information hierarchy, and scalable design patterns. Designed high-fidelity prototypes, facilitated Shopify and WordPress handoff, and built an internal CMS for content and supplier-side publishing, cutting development cycle by 50% and labour cost by 30% through reusable templates.

manila.design

Led UX research for a B2C website using interviews and Google Analytics, identifying seven conversion blockers and translating them into personas, journey improvements, and product-to-checkout redesigns that contributed to a 10% drop-off reduction. Built reusable UI patterns across product, content, and checkout journeys, then collaborated with developers on responsive production handoff.

Quadtalent

Took UI ownership mid-project under pressure, self-taught front-end basics in three days, and shipped an enterprise website with minimal engineering revision through multi-layered approvals. Designed B2B enterprise UI, dashboard patterns, and 12 data-visualisation slides for C-suite presentations.

EDUCATION

Education

University College London

Distinction. Research published at ACM CHIWORK '25 and invited to pitch findings to Google via UCL Interaction Centre.

University of Leeds

First Class. Thesis with Distinction selected for New Designers 2023 and published on Dezeen Magazine.

  • #Product UX
  • #Research
  • #Design systems
  • #Conversion
  • #AI workflows
  • #Handoff

Personal statement

Portrait of Joe Tao

I design around the moment before a user commits: the hesitation, comparison, doubt, or missing context that decides whether a product earns trust.

My work turns those moments into clearer journeys, sharper hypotheses, and reusable systems teams can actually ship. I like the space between research and making: finding the behavioural signal, shaping the interface, testing the product decision, and handing over something buildable.

I am looking for a product-design team in the UK where I can bring user judgement, systems craft, and delivery momentum to products with real ambiguity.

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