TIM JONES / UX DESIGN PORTFOLIO
Work.
Complex problems, made clear.
Three enterprise projects showing how I:
Understand the real work
Give the team one shared picture
Design something buildable
I work where the hard part comes before the screen: dense processes, scattered ownership and teams working from different versions of the truth. I use research, information architecture, writing, prototyping and shared working artefacts to help users, business and technology see the same product and move it towards delivery.
Based in the Eastern Cape. Remote-first, with planned travel to Johannesburg or Cape Town for workshops and key delivery moments.
WORK / ABSA CIB
Absa Corporate and Investment Banking
From Word, Excel and email to one coherent product system.
Large corporate credit applications were assembled outside CAP, then recaptured into a compliance platform that did not match how analysts actually worked.
The problem was not one bad screen. It was the whole chain: fragmented ownership, duplicated work, long forms, disconnected outputs and decisions scattered across meetings and inboxes.
ROLE Senior Product Designer
CONTEXT Enterprise credit
FOCUS Discovery, alignment, delivery
RESULT Sponsor-approved patterns moved into build and testing.
Discovery
Make the invisible work visible.
I interviewed analysts, sanctioners and stakeholders, walked through the real process and turned scattered evidence into a shared view of the real work.
The research showed where CAP, Word, Excel, email, facility schedules and final PDFs had drifted apart.
A shared model
One place to see the work.
Microsoft Loop became the project’s shared memory. Research, summaries, feedback, decisions, priorities and open questions remained findable across Teams.
Annotated Figma files and a shared backlog then gave business, design and technology one route from evidence to delivery.
A practical product system
Code, design and output as one system.
The Figma library traced CAP’s existing Bootstrap code and CSS, then aligned it with Absa’s design system and branding.
Reusable components connected the interface, system emails and facility schedules. Developers could build from real constraints rather than a separate design fiction.
Results
Design that survived delivery.
Sponsor-approved scrolling layouts and sticky navigation moved into build and testing.
Autosave was implemented.
A shared backlog gave the team a clear route into 2026 and beyond.
Before: Dense facility schedules, disconnected from the interface.
After: A clearer schedule aligned with the redesigned product system.
“Much easier to work with, makes more sense, and far better for long sections.”
Michelle, Senior Analyst, Absa CIB
“Tim surfaced key blind spots, created artefacts the team can reuse and influenced key decisions through the quality of his communication.”
Celestine “Zie” Ngulube, Head of Design, Absa CIB
Case study / 02
MTN
A shared product model for teams split across countries, tools and factions.
MTN’s buying journey had become long, fragmented and difficult to coordinate across teams in South Africa, Dubai and India. Buying a phone felt more like applying for a mortgage than celebrating a new purchase.
I led UX work on a screen-by-screen visual specification: part journey map, part prototype, part meeting agenda and part single source of truth.
ROLE Senior Product Designer
CONTEXT Telecoms
FOCUS Shared specification, alignment, delivery
RESULT Funnel drop-off fell from 78% to 52%.
WORK / MTN
A single source of truth
Giving business, product, design and development one shared picture.
Business, product, design and development could annotate the same journey, see dependencies and agree what would be built across releases.
User journeys, annotated wireframes and a living visual specification kept everyone on the same page.
The shared visual specification aligned the teams; the delivered interface sequence showed how that agreement shortened the buying journey.
Years later, the shared whiteboard was still evolving as the team’s preferred view of the work.
“Wherever I am, no matter who I’m talking to, the visual spec is the first thing I pull up.”
Bryton, Product Owner
WORK / MTN
Results
Delivered in weeks, not months.
The signed-off redesign was completed within weeks, after earlier teams had struggled for months.
A 27-screen journey became an 18-click flow.
The journey from “I want that” to “you’ve got it” was cut to roughly half its previous length.
Funnel drop-off fell from 78% to 52%.
Drop-off decreased by 26 points.
Case study / 03
Absa Financial Advice
A stalled advice platform rebuilt around clearer choices.
The investment advice portal relied on delayed static reports and spreadsheet-like data. Advisers and clients needed to explore choices together, not wait for an opaque report to arrive after the conversation.
ROLE Senior Product Designer
CONTEXT Financial advice
FOCUS Interaction, alignment, delivery
RESULT Client onboarding reduced from 72 hours to 12.
WORK / ABSA FINANCIAL ADVICE
Change a goal. See what happens.
Make long-term investing choices visible before clients commit.
Clients could adjust goals and explore scenarios in real time, using calculators, instant graphs and dynamic infographics to see how each choice changed the long-term picture.
For retirement planning, clients could see how different choices affected their long-term goals before committing. Accessible summaries replaced a cold stream of numbers and financial jargon without pretending the decisions were simple.
Changing a planning assumption immediately updated the forecast, helping clients understand how today’s decisions affected their long-term goals.
One shared workflow.
I led the journeys, wireframes, prototypes and testing, using a screen-by-screen workflow to align business, design and development after the project had stalled for more than two years.
WORK / ABSA FINANCIAL ADVICE
Results
MVP delivered in under four months.
Client onboarding reduced from 72 hours to 12.
Case study / 04
The Plaster House
Giving a charity a clearer story, simpler donations and more space to grow.
The Plaster House—now Kafika House—was a donor-funded rehabilitation home in Tanzania. It needed a site that explained its work, built trust and made it easy to help.
ROLE Product Designer
RESULT Donations increased fourfold.
WORK / THE PLASTER HOUSE
A clearer donation journey
Three-click donations, with clear evidence of where the money went.
The Plaster House is a donor-funded rehabilitation home in Tanzania. It needed a site that explained its work, built trust and made it easy to help.
ROLE Product Designer
RESULT Donations increased fourfold.
A three-click donation path removed unnecessary friction.
Dense, text-heavy pages became plain visual explanations of where donations went, improving transparency across the website, social posts and annual reports.
WORK / THE PLASTER HOUSE
Results
A four-fold increase in donations.
More donations helped fund new buildings, local staff, surgeons and care for more children.
“Tim is knowledgeable, professional and incredibly easy—and fun—to work with. He took the time to understand our needs and offered realistic options and suggestions for moving forward.”
Meghan Cleary, The Plaster House
Case study / 05
South African Airways
Rebuilding an airline booking journey from the ground up.
Booking, trip management, business travel and Voyager had evolved as separate services rather than one coherent traveller journey.
2008
Role: Product Designer
Result: Online bookings increased from 8% to 32% within three months.
Card sorting and journey mapping exposed where the services and hand-offs were pulling the experience apart.
I carried that structure through information architecture, sketches, prototypes and testing, designing one coherent flow around the constraints of the legacy booking system. The redesigned experience launched as a clearer online journey.
Work/ SAA
Results
The share of bookings made online increased from 8% to 32% within three months of launch.
Contact
Available for Lead, Staff and senior product design roles, and selected consulting work.
078 757 0447
© 2026 Tim Jones