10 questions with… Lewis Jones — UI Design Lead at John Lewis
1. Please introduce yourself, your role and include a quick ‘for dummies’ introduction of what it is you do.
Hi, I’m Lewis Jones and I lead the User Interface (UI) Design Team at John Lewis. We are responsible for the visual design and usability of our digital experiences and channels such as the website and apps. We make sure things like buttons, icons, typography and page layout are beautiful, intuitive, and functional.
Our goal is to make experiences easy to understand and use — so that users can do what they need to quickly and efficiently — while maintaining a high quality, recognisably John Lewis branded experience.
2. What did your route to this job look like?
I’ve had what I describe as a diagonal career, but have always orbited around one fascination: how humans interact. How we see and feel and engage and experience — the world around us; the intangible digital realm; and each other.
I’ve spent time being a graphic designer, an animator, a data visualisation specialist designer, a brand designer, and a visual designer. I’ve designed exhibitions, typefaces, video content, ad campaigns, charity campaigns and radio adverts. I’ve spent time as a learning and development trainer, and the occasional flirt with front end development. I love collaborating, and find much joy in working with/learning from/growing with/leading amazing designers.
3. How do you like to start your day?
I generally begin the day by rueing having not gone to bed earlier, then rationalising this away with some internal argument about circadian rhythms being genetic so “it’s not my fault”. Definitely nothing to do with playing video games too late the evening before.
I get up, bowl of bran flakes and muesli with Radio 6, and a mug of V60-forged coffee. Infrequently I’ll set an earlier alarm and do a fake-commute, where I ride my bike in a big circle to and from home. I love doing this — helps work feel more compartmentalised when working remotely.
4. How would you describe your approach to design in 3 words?
Thorough, empathetic, optimistic.
5. What do you enjoy most about being in the Experience Design team at John Lewis?
Being inspired by the people around me daily. We have a big team, who are all super passionate about the work they do, and how that work is created. Everyone cares for the end user as if they were a relative. We have a culture of tireless improvement: as individuals, as designers, as a team, and in our customer experiences. I love talking about design — and the potential of what we can do — with people who’ll challenge and push.
6. What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this role?
Stepping back from being hands on with the work. I love mentoring and guiding designers to help them get the best out of themselves and their work, but I do miss that feeling when you crack a design problem and land a beautiful, elegant solution.
7. What’s a product/experience you wish you had worked on?
Ah, so so many things. I’d love to apply everything I know to something tangentially similar — such as working on the interface in a car — but equally would love to be part of something super experimental and paradigm-challenging such as the development of the Apple Vision Pro!
8. Where do you look for inspiration?
I try to consciously take in and question everything! I find UI inspiration from the digital products we all use daily (think Google, Netflix, Spotify) as these are the places we are all being taught interaction expectations. More broadly I’m influenced by and take interaction-inspiration from architecture, campaigns, and industrial design. However, nothing does my actual creativity better than getting outside and “going for a look at some trees”.
9. How do you switch off from work?
Early in my career I was taught to be hardcore with the time boundaries of work and life, so I try to stick to closing my laptop at the same time everyday — and unwind with napping in front of copious YouTube videos. (Recently, they’ve mainly been about rewilding projects!)
I think it’s really important — particularly when in a creative role — to build in mental space away from the work. To help you recharge yes, but more so you can return to it fresh. Taking a step back every once a while gives you a chance to see how a user will be see your work for their first time.
10. Best thing you’ve watched, read or listened to recently?
Ah man, hard to choose — there’s so much good stuff out there right now! Stand outs from the last couple of months: being blasted by the cinematic experience of Dune 2, I’ve really enjoyed Shogun on Disney+, and cannot stop listening to Everything Everything’s new album Mountainhead.
