evoke
Currently at Evoke PLC
Senior Product Designer | Global Design Team
Serving 1.7M+ customers across William Hill, 888casino, Mr Green
About Evoke PLC
Evoke PLC is a global leader in the sports betting and gaming industry, owning and operating some of the world's most recognized and trusted brands. With an impressive portfolio that includes William Hill, 888casino, 888sport, 888poker, and Mr Green, Evoke delivers premier entertainment experiences to millions of customers worldwide.
The company serves over 1.7 million customers with an annual turnover of £1.4 billion, making it one of the most significant players in the global gaming industry.
About Me
I'm a Senior Product Designer at Evoke PLC (formerly 888 Group), one of the world's leading sports betting and gaming companies with £1.4B annual turnover. I specialize in AI-driven design solutions, scalable design systems, and complex financial product experiences.
Working with a global, multicultural team across international offices, I design for three major brands: William Hill (UK), Mr Green (EU), and 888 (EU/US markets) — all unified through a sophisticated multi-brand, multi-language design system.
Leadership & Thought Leadership
Payment Journey Redesign
From 68% Abandonment to AI-Powered Safety: How We Transformed Checkout in 4 Phases
Context and Problem
At William Hill, I identified a critical issue in our payment journey that was significantly impacting business performance. Our checkout abandonment rate had reached 68%, substantially higher than the industry average of 45% for online betting platforms.
This represented a massive revenue leakage - we were losing approximately £2.3 million monthly in potential deposits. The business impact was clear: for every 100 users attempting to make a deposit, we were losing 68 of them during the payment process.
Through initial analytics review, I discovered several alarming patterns:
34% of drop-offs occurred at the manual amount input screen
The average time to complete a deposit was 3 minutes 12 seconds, compared to competitors’ average of 90 seconds
Users were required to navigate through 7 different screens to complete a single deposit
Mobile users had an even higher abandonment rate at 74%
Payment Method Gaps
The absence of saved payment methods and popular alternatives like PayPal is costing conversions:
Saved cards: Industry standard shows 23% higher conversion when users can one-click with saved methods
PayPal/regional wallets: You're likely losing 15-25% of potential deposits from users who prefer these methods
The payment infrastructure hadn't been updated in 5 years, whilst the competitive landscape had evolved significantly. New players like bet365 had introduced one-click deposits, and traditional competitors were implementing features like biometric authentication and saved payment preferences.
As the lead designer for the payments vertical, I was tasked with completely reimagining the deposit journey. The business objectives were clear: reduce abandonment to below 50%, increase average deposit values, and create a scalable solution that could support our expansion into new markets.
This wasn't just a UI refresh - it required a fundamental rethink of how users interact with our payment systems, whilst navigating complex regulatory requirements and technical constraints from multiple payment processors.
Payment Journey Mapping and Audits
Once the team understood the scale of the problem, I collaborated with our research team to conduct a comprehensive analysis of our existing payment ecosystem. This wasn't just about identifying UI issues - we needed to understand every friction point, technical constraint, and user expectation.
Working with UX researcher team, I mapped the complete end-to-end journey, documenting every single interaction from the moment a user decided to deposit until the funds appeared in their account. I led the journey mapping sessions whilst the researchers conducted behavioural analysis on our analytics data. Together, we identified 15 critical friction points:
3 unnecessary authentication steps
Redundant information requests (asking for data we already had)
No smart defaults or predictive features
Zero payment method memory
Confusing error messages that didn't guide users to resolution, leading to another cause of page abandonment
For the competitive analysis, I partnered with our research team to study 8 direct competitors. I focused on the design patterns and user flows, whilst the researchers handled usability testing of competitor platforms with 12 participants. We analysed bet365, Paddy Power, and Betfair for industry-specific patterns, whilst studying Square, Stripe, and PayPal for payment innovation benchmarks.
Key findings from our collaborative research:
Industry leaders averaged 3 screens for deposit completion (we had 7)
All major competitors had one-click repeat deposits
5 competitors supported digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal)
Average completion time: 45-90 seconds vs our 3+ minutes
The researchers provided quantitative validation through analytics, whilst I created detailed flow documentation and a feature comparison matrix. This combination of qualitative and quantitative insights highlighted not just what we were missing, but what could become our competitive advantages. For instance, whilst everyone had quick deposits, no one was using behavioural data to personalise deposit amounts - this became a key opportunity we identified together.
This systematic audit gave us concrete data to present to stakeholders: we weren't just behind, we were losing customers to specific, fixable friction points. Every finding was backed by user research data, screenshots, timings, and user flow documentation.
Payments Workshop
Armed with comprehensive research data, I organised a series of three workshops with key stakeholders to validate our findings and align on the path forward. These weren't just presentation meetings - they were collaborative working sessions designed to bridge the gap between user needs, business objectives, and technical constraints.
I brought together 12 participants across product management, engineering, compliance, and business intelligence. Each workshop had a specific focus:
Workshop 1
Problem Validation & Prioritisation I presented the journey mapping findings and competitor analysis, but more importantly, I facilitated exercises to help stakeholders experience the friction points themselves. We ran a card sorting exercise to prioritise the 15 identified issues based on user impact and implementation effort. The "Available Deposits" feature emerged as a critical quick win - product managers revealed it could potentially increase average deposits by 40% with suggested value deposit.
Workshop 2
Technical Feasibility & Constraints This session focused on understanding what we could actually build. Engineers mapped out API limitations, payment processor requirements, and regulatory constraints. We discovered crucial technical dependencies:
Visa/Mastercard 3D Secure requirements limited how streamlined we could make authentication
Our payment gateway could support tokenisation, but it would require 3 months of development
The available deposits feature could be implemented quickly using the existing transaction history APIs
Workshop 3
Solution Ideation & Roadmapping Using the Crazy Eights method, we rapidly ideated solutions for our top-priority friction points. The team was guided through sketching exercises, ensuring everyone - including engineers - contributed design ideas. We then plotted solutions on an impact/effort matrix, which naturally revealed our three-phase approach.
The workshops achieved something crucial: stakeholder buy-in through participation. By involving everyone in the discovery and ideation process, I transformed potential blockers into champions. The product owner who initially wanted "just a quick UI fix" became the biggest advocate for our comprehensive three-phase approach after seeing the revenue impact potential.
This collaborative approach ensured our solution would work for all stakeholders, not just users.
Ownership of the Payments Project
With stakeholder alignment secured, I took full ownership of executing the payment redesign. This meant not just creating designs, but orchestrating a complex delivery across multiple teams, managing dependencies, and ensuring we delivered measurable business impact. Always giving to the whole team visibility thought Jira tickets and weekly checkpoints.
We structured the project into three strategic phases based on our workshop outcomes:
Phase 1
Quick Wins I focused on changes that required minimal engineering effort but would show immediate impact. The hero feature was our "Quick Deposit" amounts - using behavioural data to suggest personalised amounts instead of manual input.
Designed and tested five variations of the quick deposit UI
Worked with engineers to implement using existing transaction history APIs
Collaborated with the data team to define the personalisation algorithm
Result: Average deposit increased by 27%, adding £1.2M monthly revenue
Phase 2
Flow Optimisation: Here, I tackled the fundamental journey issues, reducing steps from 7 to 3 screens:
Combined payment method selection with amount input
Implemented smart defaults based on user history
Designed an inline validation to prevent errors before submission
Introduced a payment method with memory and tokenisation
Result: Completion time dropped from 3:12 to 1:45, abandonment reduced to 51%
Phase 3
Innovation Features: The final phase introduced market-leading capabilities:
One-click repeat deposits for returning users
Digital wallet integration (Apple Pay, Google Pay)
Biometric authentication option
Result: Abandonment fell to 42%
Phase 4 (In Development)
Future Vision and Deposit AI First, we're currently designing the next evolution, completely replacing manual input with AI-driven Smart Deposits that prioritise user safety:
Intelligent deposit suggestions based on: user-set deposit limits, daily betting patterns, win/loss ratios, and time-based spending habits
Responsible gambling integration: amounts never exceed user limits, cooling-off period detection, and automatic lower suggestions after losses
Real-time risk assessment using machine learning to promote healthy betting behaviours
Expected outcome: Enhanced user protection whilst maintaining conversion rates
Throughout delivery, I maintained complete ownership by:
Running weekly design reviews with stakeholders
Creating detailed specifications with micro-interactions documented on Jira
Pairing with engineers during implementation to ensure design fidelity
Monitoring analytics daily and iterating based on user behaviour
The phased approach was crucial - each phase built user trust and showed incremental value, making it easier to get approval for subsequent innovations. By the end, we'd not only fixed a broken journey but also created a competitive advantage that became the standard across all William Hill products.
This experience reinforced my belief that the best solutions come from designers and engineers working as thought partners, not in silos. By understanding the technical constraints early and designing within them creatively, we delivered a better user experience than our original "ideal" design would have achieved.
Architecture Draft
Additional Areas of Contribution
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🤖 AI-Driven Product Design
Developing AI-powered solutions for personalized promotional content
Creating internal tools that leverage LLM technology for employee support
Implementing context-aware, dynamic content generation at scale
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💳 High-Stakes Payment Systems
Led redesign of payment systems processing millions of pounds weekly
Reduced checkout abandonment through strategic UX improvements
Implemented design strategies to increase average checkout value
Deep expertise in payment technologies from working with major banks
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🎯 Conversion-Focused Promotions
Primary focus on customer retention and acquisition strategies
Design solutions that leverage major events and contextual relevance
Collaborated with stakeholders to increase new user conversion rates
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🔧 Enterprise Design Systems
Built multi-brand, multi-language design system post-$2.2B acquisition
Conducted comprehensive design audits across three major companies
Established scalable design practices connecting to business objectives
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🔒 Compliance & Security (KYC)
Designed user document verification systems for regulatory compliance
Enhanced security measures while maintaining the user experience
Leveraged financial sector expertise for gambling industry requirements
Post-Acquisition Integration Success
My Approach:
Conducted extensive audits across all three companies' user journeys
Mapped unique needs and existing design elements
Created comprehensive documentation system via Jira tickets
Provided real-time visibility to executives and design teams
The Result: Successfully established design consistency across the organization, enabling the first full year of integrated operations in 2024.
Design Team Deliveries Wrapped
After the unification of the three companies, 2024 marked the first full year of integrated operations. This video, presented to the executives, highlights the Q2 achievements of the design team, showcasing their work under a unified design system.
This video is just an illustrative way of showing the design team's work,
produced by the company's marketing team.
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