James Armitage

2020 - 2024

Acted as a front end consultant for the business at IDEO workshops to help shape a new mobile app in order to attract new customers to the business. Created split tests for the exploratory phase of the app. In the next phase, once it had been branded as Qurio, started building the app in a cross-functional team with React Native, TypeScript and GraphQL. Developed a CI/CD pipeline to automate app deployment in Azure. Added bridging code in Xcode and Android Studio to handle timed video recording. Devised a testing strategy with the business analytics team and implemented the plan. Created the Qurio marketing website with React. Provided technical leadership to a small team of front end developers, within the wider cross-functional team, to develop live streaming, video on demand and AI assistant React components for the web.

2015 - 2019

Joined a global front end team working across multiple time zones to migrate the QVC websites from IBM WebSphere Commerce to Adobe Experience Manager and redesign them with a ‘mobile first’ mindset. Progressed to Senior level in September 2017. Developed front end code for all areas of the sites including homepage, product listings, product detail and checkout. Trained and mentored a junior content developer and enabled them to join the front end development team.

2013 - 2015

Provided a bridge between the local IT and content creation teams and became a technical point of contact for third parties to integrate marketing tags and other features. Added media queries to the QVC UK website, making it the first one in the global portfolio to be accessible using a smartphone. Migrated existing blogs content to a cheaper and more functional WordPress server.

Legoland Holidays is the largest website in the short breaks portfolio in terms of booking volume. During my time at Holiday Extras I was responsible for many updates to the site. I implemented the homepage and extras stage in the booking process, and built the new Legoland Hotel page. The site is based on bespoke designs generated by the user experience team using Mockflow and I was expected to ensure elements appear exactly the same across all modern browsers. Sprites are used widely across the site to reduce the number of HTTP requests required by the client.

When Alton Towers redesigned their own site in early 2011, I had to reskin both the SEO pages and the booking process to match the new design. During the project I adapted the PSD of the navigation bar provided by the park to match the short breaks site and introduced many other elements to give the site a new feel, which was approved directly by the park. This all happened while ensuring that the booking process remained intact and that customers could continue to book using the old design until the rebrand was ready to launch.

On the Chessington Holidays site I implemented a number of changes, including highlighting the on site hotels with zebra print backgrounds to make them stand out, implementing countdown clocks on the homepage to count down to the expiry of an offer, and multiple optimisations of the booking engine.

In 2010 I redesigned Thorpe Breaks based on an original design from the park, similar to Alton Towers Breaks. I adapted many of the elements provided by the park to match the requirements of the breaks site, with a minimum of points raised for improvement at the sign off stage. Following this I was involved with general maintenance, especially with the many offers which needed to be implemented during the summer season.

Having seen the success of similar short break packages for Legoland and Thorpe Park, the Eden Project were keen to set up a new holiday site for their brand. In spring 2010 I created the site as part of a small team of an account manager, a project manager and a back-end developer.

In late 2010 I was asked to completely redesign Paultons Breaks after the park updated their site. For many years the short breaks site had been neglected and was underperforming, and this meant that there was very little budget allocated for creating the new version. I created many of the images for the new site based on an original PSD file and turned around the redesign in time for the 2011 season. Combined with the launch of Peppa Pig World at the theme park, the site went from being one of the poorest performing sites in the portfolio to one of the strongest brands.

Show and Stay was Holiday Extras' own brand theatre breaks offering, allowing customers to create bespoke theatre, dinner and hotel packages in the West End of London. I often uploaded new images and new offers to the site.

Along a similar line to Show and Stay, the Play and Stay site offered theme park breaks under its own brand name. One of my first tasks upon joining Holiday Extras in mid-2009 was to make the booking process more consistent throughout which involved ensuring all hotel and attraction images were present, that all package options appeared in a neat grid layout and that also all current offers appeared correctly. From time to time I performed routine maintenance on the site.

PassSmart offered a searchable directory of independent driving instructors, offering learner drivers a better way of finding one which suits them. I created a cross-client email template for the brand. I also made other smaller tweaks across the rest of the site, while ensuring that the responsive layout worked across all devices.

Through late 2009, my first major project at Holiday Extras was to set up a new short breaks site for Legoland in Günzburg, Germany within a large team of developers and account managers. This was a highly challenging project as it involved many new concepts for the business such as dealing with Lastschrift deposit bookings and ensuring everything on the site could be accessed in both German and English.