📋 The Problem

A static site, at the busiest time of year.

Debenhams needed new pages and components for seasonal campaigns — Christmas, Black Friday, Valentine's Day — but the site itself was largely static, with no real micro-interactions to bring campaigns to life or make sure customers didn't miss them. I designed a set of reusable seasonal components that could be redeployed campaign after campaign, rather than rebuilt from scratch each time.

Role

  • Title: Senior Product Designer
  • Client: Debenhams
  • Scope: FAB button, revealing banner, advent calendar
  • Completed: November 2019
Seasonal Components overview

Planning ahead for Christmas meant designing multiple paths for customers to reach seasonal content, so it wouldn't be missed.

🔍 Discovery

I brainstormed ideas and mapped the user journey to understand how customers would actually reach these seasonal pages, identifying where playful, engagement-driving elements could fit without disrupting the core shopping experience.

User journey mapping for seasonal content

🧭 Solution

I designed three reusable components, each solving a different part of the seasonal engagement problem:

01
Component

FAB button

Since the global navigation isn't sticky, customers lost it when scrolling. I designed a sticky FAB button, bottom-left on desktop, tablet, and mobile, with a subtle animation to draw attention. Clicking it opens a pop-up with offer details; once checked, the button greys out as visual confirmation, and resets daily for new offers.

02
Component

Revealing banner

I initially proposed a parallax scrolling banner for special events, but performance limitations ruled it out. I designed a revealing banner instead, delivering a similar effect without the performance cost — the content team got the interactive design they wanted, and the site kept its speed.

03
Component

Advent calendar

Debenhams is known for its physical advent calendars, so I recreated that experience online — a new offer revealed each day until Christmas, with customers only seeing products once they'd been revealed. This meant close collaboration with development and content teams to get right.

FAB button

FAB button prototype
Prototype of the FAB button used in user testing to validate the interaction.

Revealing banner

Revealing banner, Christmas campaign
The revealing banner showcasing the Christmas campaign.

Advent calendar

Advent calendar prototype
The advent calendar prototype.

🚀 Impact

All three components were designed for reuse across multiple seasonal campaigns — Christmas, Black Friday, Valentine's Day — maximising development efficiency rather than starting from scratch each season. The advent calendar in particular boosted engagement and conversion during its run.

Reusable components across seasonal campaigns