Design impact
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Virgin Media homepage is one of the website’s highest-traffic entry points, receiving over 200,000 daily visits, yet its conversion rate remained low at 0.22%.
The project aimed to explore new homepage concepts that balance brand storytelling with clear product discovery, improving clarity, engagement and user journeys for a diverse set of digital users.
Two concepts were developed: an immersive full-screen carousel and a dynamic modular grid, each designed to guide users toward relevant offers while reflecting the Virgin Media brand.
Concepts were validated through moderated user testing with 12 participants, providing actionable insights to refine entry journeys, enhance engagement, and inform future iterations. The work combined UX strategy, interaction design, prototyping, and early research to lay the foundation for a more effective and engaging homepage experience.
CONTEXT
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The homepage is one of Virgin Media’s highest-traffic pages, driving awareness and acquisition across broadband, mobile and bundle products. The primary goal was to increase clarity, engagement, and progression to key product journeys, ensuring users could quickly find relevant offers and services.
USER OBJECTIVES
Visitors needed to understand the brand offer, identify the next step, and access key products or deals with minimal friction. Different user types—from savvy digital customers to newcomers—required a homepage that supports both exploration and goal-oriented navigation.
UX CHALLENGE
Despite high traffic, the existing homepage had a low conversion rate (0.22%) and uneven engagement with key modules. The challenge was to reimagine the homepage experience, balancing immersive brand storytelling with clear navigation and actionable entry points for all user segments.
MY ROLE
I led the UX strategy, concept design, interaction design, and prototyping, collaborating closely with stakeholders, the research team, and engineering to validate ideas and ensure alignment across business and user goals.
DEFINITION
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The existing homepage, despite high traffic, struggled to guide users effectively toward product discovery and purchase journeys.
Key modules such as the carousel and serviceability widget showed low engagement, and users often relied solely on navigation to find relevant offers.
The challenge was to clarify messaging, simplify entry points, and reduce friction for all types of visitors.
DESIGN-LED CHALLENGE
The homepage needed to balance immersive brand storytelling with functional navigation.
Any redesign had to communicate Virgin Media’s value proposition clearly while supporting different user behaviours, from exploratory browsing to goal-oriented tasks.
This required exploring alternative interaction models and visual hierarchies that enhance engagement without overwhelming users.
HYPOTHESES
We hypothesised that if the homepage concepts clearly highlight key offers and product journeys while reinforcing the brand, users would better understand Virgin Media’s value, feel more confident navigating the site, and engage more with promotional modules.
Early validation and iteration would allow us to refine entry paths and interaction patterns before wider implementation.
DESIGN
UX Strategy
The design phase focused on exploring new interaction models and visual hierarchies to improve the Virgin Media homepage experience. Guided by analytics insights and brand identity, two distinct concepts were developed, an immersive full-screen carousel and a dynamic modular grid, each aimed at balancing brand storytelling with clear product discovery. Prototypes and animations were created to test user comprehension, navigation clarity, and engagement, ensuring every design decision was grounded in both user needs and business objectives.
Data Driven Insights
Analysis of the current homepage highlighted high traffic but low engagement: a 0.22% conversion rate, 41% bounce rate, and limited interaction with key modules such as the carousel and serviceability widget. Mobile users showed slightly better engagement, influenced by a higher proportion of new visitors. These insights established where the homepage was underperforming and informed design priorities.
Homepage Visits
Conversion rate from the homepage is 0.22%
In total we see 203,007 views to the homepage daily which is the highest of all of our pages on the site as expected (after the sign in page)
Traffic by devices
Click rates
Brand & Visual Context
The redesign was guided by Virgin Media’s bold visual identity, ensuring any new concepts maintained brand recognition and consistency. Visual references and current homepage snapshots helped ground the design exploration while providing a baseline for improvements.
Concept Development
Two distinct homepage concepts were developed to explore alternative interaction models and visual hierarchies:
Current Homepage
Concept 1 – Immersive Brand Carousel
This concept evolves the existing homepage carousel, a familiar component widely used across the current Virgin Media website and well recognised by internal stakeholders. The idea was to transform it into a full-screen immersive experience, introducing users to an imaginative Virgin Media world where each slide represents a different product or offer.
Animated brand elements, micro-interactions, and subtle motion cues bring each scene to life, encouraging exploration while guiding attention toward key actions. Each slide highlights a specific service—such as broadband, mobile, or bundles—while providing clear entry points to the corresponding product journeys.
By combining storytelling, animation, and interaction, this concept aimed to strengthen brand engagement while helping users quickly understand available offers and identify their next step within the site.
Mockups
Prototypes
Concept 2 – Dynamic Grid Navigation
This concept explores a more structured and modular approach to the homepage layout. The design is based on a dynamic grid set on a clean white background, allowing Virgin Media’s vibrant brand colours to guide user attention across different sections of the page.
Each grid module highlights a specific product, offer, or journey entry point, using micro-interactions and subtle animations to reveal additional information and encourage engagement. The modular structure enables users to quickly scan the page, identify relevant content, and access key areas such as broadband, mobile, bundles, or deals.
By combining a clear visual hierarchy with interactive elements, this concept focuses on improving product discovery and navigation clarity while maintaining the bold visual identity of the Virgin Media brand.
Mockups
Prototypes
VALIDATE
User Testing & Validation
To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed homepage concepts, I collaborated with the UX research team to support a remote moderated usability study. The research focused on collecting qualitative feedback on the video prototypes of the two homepage concepts, helping us understand how users perceive the experience and whether the designs clearly communicate Virgin Media’s offering.
The study involved 12 participants, representing a mix of digital behaviours and familiarity with Virgin Media services. Participants were asked to review the concept videos and share their reactions, focusing on first impressions and their ability to understand and navigate the page.
Initial reactions to the homepage experience
Whether users understand the main message and value proposition
Whether users can identify the next step after landing on the page
How easily users can check service availability in their area
Whether users can locate key offers, broadband pages, or deals
The level of trust and purchase confidence generated by the page
These sessions helped capture early insights on how the concepts perform in terms of clarity, engagement, and navigation, informing the next design iterations.
IMPACT
Key Learnings
The concept exploration and user testing provided valuable insights into how users perceive the Virgin Media homepage and how effectively they can identify the next step in their journey. Participants responded positively to both concepts, highlighting stronger visual engagement and clearer entry points to product areas compared with the current homepage. The research also surfaced opportunities to improve product messaging, highlight key offers more clearly, and simplify access to serviceability checks. These insights helped inform future design iterations and provided a foundation for refining the homepage experience in alignment with the existing design system.
Conclusion
This project provided an opportunity to rethink one of Virgin Media’s most visible digital touch-points by combining data insights, brand storytelling, and user-centred design.
Through concept exploration and early user validation, the work helped identify clearer ways to guide users toward relevant products while maintaining the brand’s distinctive visual identity.
The process also reinforced the importance of balancing engaging visual experiences with clear navigation and actionable entry points, ensuring the homepage can support both exploration and goal-driven journeys.
These learnings provide a strong foundation for future iterations and ongoing optimisation of the homepage experience.
These are just a selection. Explore the full portfolio to see additional work across optimisation, migration, and end-to-end product journeys.