Date and my role
• 2025–2026
• Experience Design Lead (Contract)
• Experience Design Lead (Contract)
The challenge
Create a unified, scalable experience across multiple platforms and journeys, replacing fragmented systems and inconsistent workflows ahead of the Australian Open 2026.
My role
Align the user experience across platforms, shaping the IA, design system and core journeys for all audiences.
Scope
• National website and 8x state websites re-platformed into AEM.
• Integration of identity and booking journeys.
• Design system foundations. UX and content governance.
• Design system foundations. UX and content governance.
Success Indicators
A more consistent, accessible foundation that improves traffic growth and task completion, reduces operational overhead, and supports future feature rollout.
Read on for a more detailed case study...
The Problem Space
Tennis Australia’s digital presence had grown organically across many teams, tools and platforms. This created fragmented journeys across core products (search, booking, identity, events and more), with inconsistent structures and broken paths.
There was high editorial overhead, with multiple teams working in silos and no governance model or unified view of the end-to-end experience. Operational risk increased due to poor accessibility, outdated content, inconsistent forms and duplication.
These issues directly impacted booking conversion, user trust and support load, as teams spent significant time correcting errors or clarifying unclear processes.
The organisation needed a unified ecosystem with clear guardrails, reusable patterns and a coherent experience for all audiences.
Above: Scale of ecosystem
My Approach
Translated the transformation vision into experience principles and future-state journeys for players, fans, partners and internal deliverers.
• Ran cross-functional design jams with product, engineering, marketing, content and brand, using Jobs-To-Be-Done mapping to surface constraints and shape the new IA and template decisions.
• Defined core AEM templates, patterns and themes to ensure consistency while supporting multiple sub-brands.
• Co-created governance for content, assets, component usage, accessibility and development handover.
• Prototyped exemplar flows to guide decision-making, validation and implementation quality in AEM.
Above: Book a Court JTBD flow
Systems & Key Decisions
The design system and governance model reduced duplicated effort and improved delivery predictability across squads.
• Established design system foundations.
Worked closely with external partners to set up feedback loops and a scalable rollout model.
• Introduced a structured template approach in AEM
Balanced editorial flexibility with a coherent user experience.
• Aligned identity, search and booking journeys around shared patterns.
Ensured usability, accessibility and validation needs were met.
• Collaborated on internal roles, governance and delivery rituals.
This helped support consistent execution across squads.
• Strengthened accessibility through contrast rules, screen-reader testing and editorial guardrails.
Worked closely with external partners to set up feedback loops and a scalable rollout model.
• Introduced a structured template approach in AEM
Balanced editorial flexibility with a coherent user experience.
• Aligned identity, search and booking journeys around shared patterns.
Ensured usability, accessibility and validation needs were met.
• Collaborated on internal roles, governance and delivery rituals.
This helped support consistent execution across squads.
• Strengthened accessibility through contrast rules, screen-reader testing and editorial guardrails.
Above: AEM component variants
Outcome & Impact
The new tennis.com.au launched in October 2025, establishing the foundation for a unified experience across the wider ecosystem. Early analytics and booking benchmarks indicated strong conversion performance post-launch, with a clearer foundation to drive future traffic growth and feature expansion.
• pickleballaus.au launched shortly after on the same foundations.
This validated the design-system and template approach for rapid multi-brand rollout.
• Eight member association state websites mid-migration using shared components/patterns.
• Governance practices adopted across content, product and engineering.
This improved collaboration, quality and reduced rework.
• Phase 2 roadmap underway, exploring personalisation, dynamic feeds, enhanced search.
• pickleballaus.au launched shortly after on the same foundations.
This validated the design-system and template approach for rapid multi-brand rollout.
• Eight member association state websites mid-migration using shared components/patterns.
• Governance practices adopted across content, product and engineering.
This improved collaboration, quality and reduced rework.
• Phase 2 roadmap underway, exploring personalisation, dynamic feeds, enhanced search.
The unified foundations created a more consistent, accessible experience that improved booking and EOI performance, reduced duplicated effort across teams, and enables scalable growth across products, brands and states.
Above: Various mobile screens showing the scalability of the design system.
Huge thanks to...
Iain, Mags, Ange and the broader unified digital experience team, Anchora, the engineering team and everyone else involved.
Iain, Mags, Ange and the broader unified digital experience team, Anchora, the engineering team and everyone else involved.
