I'm currently testing out the blog, so there's nothing here yet. And by testing out, I mean editing and re-editing articles. Sorry.

Catch up with me on Bluesky or LinkedIn, in the meantime.

Here you'll find thoughts, ideas, and case studies as we examine great design and engineering on the web.

Lets talk tech and UX

Building visually appealing and user-friendly checkout and marketing experiences, my work allowed Cruise Nation to retain an edge against well-funded competitors, winning Best Cruise Holiday Retailer at the 2019 British Travel Awards for the second year running.

In-between my UI work, I developed automations for end-to-end testing, built a staging preview system to give leadership a better way to sign-off on UI changes, and found innovative ways to improve the performance of our legacy platform and optimise the user experience for mobile users. These efforts dovetailed with my work to improve deployments processes and significantly automate repetitive tasks, saving valuable time for the web and digital team.

This is a selection of the high-impact projects that I led while at Cruise Nation:

I started working with Pip in 2018 when he joined my team at Cruise Nation. I became clear very quickly that Pip would be an asset to us and whilst he was employed by Cruise Nation he took a leading role in developing many aspects of the business's online presence. Pip has a thirst for emerging technology and enjoys learning new skills. He's driven, hard-working, reliable, and will always offer a valued opinion on any given situation. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Pip. He's a great guy to have around and will never let you down.

— Neil Page, Head of Digital at Cruise Nation via 

I’ve designed and developed key features for an award-winning cruise travel e-commerce site.

Explore how I shipped great experiences at Cruise Nation

Front-End Engineer

I develop solutions with full-stack JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, Docker, and make use of serverless step-functions on the AWS platform.

I now also support critical services in production, triaging issues as part of the on-call engineering support team and ensuring our team’s output is secure, tested, and audited to meet the high standards of the DVLA.

Here are some of the things I've achieved at the DVLA so far:

I work on high reliability products and secure services used by millions of public customers, private businesses, and international clients, many with sensitive data requirements and time-critical workflows.

Find out how I'm adapting to enterprise work at DVLA

Senior Software Engineer

I developed and managed the production of new features using a range of technologies, including Next.js, Angular, TypeScript, Node.js, and WordPress.

While in this role I managed team activities, conducted reviews, led meetings, and assigned tasks while keeping stakeholders engaged and up to date. I also ensured our work met high standards and provided guidance to established projects to ensure they met business needs. For front-end and infrastructure projects, I used services like Vercel, GitHub Actions, LightSail servers, AWS S3, and CloudFlare to streamline workflows, cut costs, and enhance the performance of our web apps and sites.

Post-acquisition, I worked hard at Planet Sport to ensure business continuity while taking on demanding new workloads:

Pip was a pleasure to work with for almost three years. When working together at Tipstrr and Planet Sport, he surpassed expectations on a daily basis. Having initially joining as a front-end developer, it was abundantly clear from an early stage that his understanding from a UI/UX point of view was exceptional. Pip has helped our product flourish by helping us maximise its potential, its ease of use and its front-end structure. Pip was almost always involved in the top-level discussions with product development and added real, genuine value. It was a genuine pleasure to have him on our team.

I have found Pip to be a standout talent in both his approach and execution as a front-end developer. Pip is a cordial, multi-talented nice guy who can juggle various complex projects with aplomb. Pip made a dramatic impact in the productivity level of our team when I had the pleasure of working with him at Planet Sport. As a team member or a leader, Pip earns my highest recommendation.

— Nik Keene, Chief Product Officer at Planet Sport via 

I tackled product innovation at one of the UK's top sports journalism brands, focusing on creating high-quality web experiences and mobile applications with millions of users annually.

Read about my impact on product development at Planet Sport

Lead User Experience Engineer

I then got involved with the core Thinqi web application and its related projects as a developer, joining the agile team and developing responsive, accessible components used by students, teachers, and administrators.

I worked closely with product managers and designers to adapt to evolving business requirements and contribute to the specs for the RESTful APIs developed by backend developers, always ensuring a consistent, well-tested user experience.

These projects helped me grow as a designer and kicked-off my career in digital engineering:

Phillip is an extremely professional, competent and efficient individual who delivered his work to a high standard and always met the time constraints and brief. I would not hesitate to recommend him.

— Kathryn Stevenson, Project Manager at Thinqi (CDSM Interactive Solutions Ltd) via 

I first met Phillip whilst assembling a junior team at CDSM. Straight away it was clear that he would be an asset to the team and the company. He had all the design talent we were looking for, but what really stood out was his technical mindset. This combination of creative thinking and ability to execute and develop proved to be extremely powerful. [...] Phillip had a great deal of input on processes and practices often streamlining and improving current approaches as well as creating efficient new processes for unchartered domains.

— Jay Price, Senior User Experience Designer at Thinqi (CDSM Interactive Solutions Ltd) via 

I prototyped interactive content and designed graphics for high-engagement, fully interactive e-learning experiences used to train the staff of global brand names like Boots, Honda, and Mitsubishi.

Learn how I helped improve student outcomes at Thinqi

Junior Front-End Engineer

I improved account management and checkout processes, brought stats and insights to life with intuitive designs, and boosted sign-up and partner click-through rates with engaging advertising techniques.

I embraced brand new web technologies and engineering architectures, gaining expertise in TypeScript, Angular, and Next.js. I enhanced platform performance and reduced operating costs by implementing bespoke solutions using edge functions, middleware, caching layers, and other backend-for-frontend techniques.

Innovation at Tipstrr happened in incremental sprints, but here are some of the significant projects:

I hired Pip as a front-end developer in October 2020 and I would highly recommend him to any organisation looking to greatly enhance their development team. Since day one he has shown a high level of work ethic and technical expertise which has been demonstrated in his productivity and quality of work. He has proven himself to be a vital member of the company, and his passion for learning has regularly resulted in new ideas being translated into a final successful product of work. In my experience it is very rare that you come across someone with his level of expertise on the both the UX side and the coding side of front-end development.

I led front-end development of this data-heavy real-time sports tipping platform, collaborating with leadership and power-users to design new features and prototypes, create back-office tools, and improve the product experience for thousands of users.

You can bet that I improved the Tipstrr customer experience

Senior Front-End Engineer

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I designed printed leaflets for a student-led college theatre group to help promote their primary school touring.

Blue Sky Theatre Company Graphics

I developed an identity and coffee brand packaging for a local cafe.

AS Project Cafe Americano

I put together a graphical design booklet centered around the theme of psychology, flow state, and serenity.

AS Project Serenity

I helped my dad to realise his idea for a novice-friendly legal resource using PHP, WordPress and custom themes.

Accused.com Design & Theme Development

AncientBoar.com

I turned common phrases into brands with easily recognisable and minimal logo designs.

BA Project Cheap & Cheerful Shirts

I worked my typesetting and print skills with a graphical review of the Garamond font following the Creative Review design submission guidelines.

BA Project Garamond Review

I developed my typographical skills by designing book covers with one rule- only text allowed.

BA Project Title Pages

I explored different font families by developing a poster which was featured as the best-in-class.

BA Project Type Classification Articleer

BTEC First Diploma in Media

I helped a local photographer to move away from an old flash website and onto WordPress with a stylish gallery.

Black Planet Photography

I put together a prototype theme for my dad's legal aid firm that showcased the type of cases and expertise they offered.

Clive Rees & Associates Theme Development

Cruise Nation Automated E2E Testing

Cruise Nation Automated Price Crawler

Cruise Nation Checkout Redesign

Cruise Nation Continuous Integration Pipeline

cruisenation.com

Cruise Nation DELTA Documentation

I developed a custom JavaScript framework based on Backbone.js to modernise a legacy front-end platform. Inspired by early versions of Next.js, React and Angular, this framework enabled large pages to be segmented into smaller, more manageable components.

Cruise Nation DELTA Web Framework

Cruise Nation Deals Grid

Cruise Nation Destination Pages

Cruise Nation Loading Page Experience

Cruise Nation Navigation Experience

Cruise Nation Search Experience

Cruise Nation Short-links

Cruise Nation Staging & Feature Flag Support

Change Address on your V5C Tech Uplift

Cross-Team Serverless Working Group

Cross-Team UI Working Group

Crown Logo Change

GitHub Copilot Working Group

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HMCTS Case Submission System

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Next.js, React Working Group

Pay a DVLA Fine Tech Uplift

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Request a Duplicate Logbook (V5C) Tech Uplift

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DVLA Rails developer on-boarding

DVLA VME Agile Nexus Ways of Working

I worked as an intern for a Forensic Data Recovery company and rebuilt their front-end in under a week using a copy of CSS, HTML: The missing manual and excellent coaching from the senior staff.

Fields Data Recovery

I built a site to host custom mods I and the community made for the MMORPG FlyFF, reaching a thousand monthly users

FlyFF Fansite

Music Technology Stage Production

I discovered that I could change and share things on the internet and started helping my friends customise their MySpace profiles

MySpace Profiles

Planet Sport Bet Landing Pages

In collaboration with the design team, I developed microsites for SEO and marketing, integrated with our bookmaker app to enhance its visibility and search rankings. We focused on user engagement through targeted promotions and offers.

Planet Sport Bet Promotion Pages

I conducted detailed audits of Planet Sport platforms to pinpoint performance bottlenecks, high-cost areas, SEO weaknesses, and UX improvement opportunities.

Planet Sport Properties Auditing

Baze Auditing & Consulting

Ladbrokes Fanzone Betting Widget Prototype

PlanetSport.com Redesign

Racing And Sport Auditing

TennisHead On-boarding & Consulting

Rees.wedding

I developed a social media identity and WordPress theme for an upcoming music booking and entertainments company.

South Wales Entertainments

Anglian Windows E-Learning Graphics

Boots E-Learning Prototype

Thinqi Events Pages

I worked as part of a graphic design team to edit, balance, and hand-correct thousands of photos for Honda's e-learning courses.

Honda Sales Graphics

Interactive Designer On-boarding

Jaguar E-Learning Prototype

Thinqi Mathquill Integration

Mitsubishi E-Bytes E-Learning

Thinqi Tag Search

Tipstrr API Redevelopment

Tipstrr Add Tips & Betslip Experience

Tipstrr Admin Dashboard

Tipstrr Advertising

Tipstrr Alerts App Prototype

Tipstrr Alerts iOS Widget Prototype

BeardBears.club

Tipstrr Black Friday Landing

Tipstrr Article Redesign

Tipstrr Checkout Experience Redesign

Tipstrr Competitions App

Tipstrr Continuous Integration Pipeline

Tipstrr Dashboard Redesign

Tipstrr Discord Auth Integration

Tipstrr Dynamic Widget Redesign

Tipstrr Firewall & Anti-Bot

Tipstrr Fixture Results

Tipstrr Fixtures Redesign

Tipstrr GA Privacy Bridge

Tipstrr Homepage Redesign

Tipstrr Insights Widget Prototype

Tipstrr Live Odds Grids

Tipstrr Live Odds Sync System

Tipstrr MetaMask Auth Integration

Tipstrr Middleware & Rendering Engine

Tipstrr PPC Marketing Pages

Tipstrr Platform Modernisation

Tipstrr Portfolios Redesign

Tipstrr Pro Membership

Tipstrr Real-Time Notifications

During Tipstrr's acquisition period, I helped secure substantial funding for the company from UK government research and innovation grants. I compiled over a dozen detailed case studies and technical analyses, showcasing how our team successfully navigated challenging technical, experiential, and budgetary hurdles over several years.