Case: LEGO.com, building a UX practice
Challenge
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Fragmented microsites for individual franchises, with no cross-portal optimization
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Underutilized CMS limiting analytics, user journey insights, and standardized templates
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Poor scalability and lack of mobile readiness, with reliance on Flash and static visuals
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No overarching content or design strategy, leaving little room for immersive play experiences
Approach
This initiative set the stage for establishing a dedicated UX team within LEGO’s internal agency.
Role:
Sr. UX Architect & Sr. Manager
Organizational Considerations
LEGO had just begun its digital transformation when I joined. As part of the internal agency, I was tasked with contributing to the redesign of LEGO.com, an initiative central to this transformation. At the same time, the product and development teams were transitioning to agile methodologies.
With the many changes, the organization had not kept up, leaving any major design changes to be decided by an intricate network of committees, warm and cold hands.
LEGO taught me a lot about both starting a UX practice and how to understand and manage stakeholders in a large organization.
Personas
Besides researching and writing personas for digital experiences, we ensured that they linked to cross company opportunities, such as:
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Wider marketing efforts
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Product themes opportunities
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Making specific user requirements clear
We ensured our user research recruiting profiles matched up and that there was iterative updates.
One key message to the organization was how little time kids have to play. This was an important consideration for LEGO to help prioritize time spent in digital experiences vs. playing with the physical toys.
Establishing a Digital Foundation
After a year at LEGO, I was asked to lead the digital product experience track of the company’s digital transformation, building on my work with LEGO.com
I drove cross-organizational alignment and ensured tactical impact across apps, web, and physical products. We developed LEGO’s digital guidelines, which served not only as governance standards but also as educational tools and practical frameworks to support the broader transition.
Governing Quality
I created a heuristic review framework grounded in LEGO’s digital guidelines and UX principles. This included a scoring system and standardized usability metrics, establishing a consistent approach to measuring and governing digital quality.
Usability Scorecard
I established user research and with it, the usability scorecard to establish a baseline to show improvements.
The idea of a usability scorecard was based around having high level KPIs that could be measured across experiences and easily scanned and understood.
We collected data through usability studies both in field, lab or remote.
I establish research “buses” to make it easy for the digital product team to test their designs.
First iteration of the usability scorecard.
Platform Thinking
The user-generated gallery was one of LEGO.com’s most popular features. I led the effort to transform it into a standardized, reusable component across product themes.
The design integrated LEGO ID and backend services such as image moderation, ensuring safety and consistency. I created the component to be fully responsive and adaptable across multiple channels.
While the SmartTV app was never launched, the gallery was successfully reused across both web and mobile apps.
LEGO Holiday Card
Reusable component for creating ”digital postcards”.
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Allowing sharing on social media but still within child protection guidelines (COPPA)
Key Insights
By the time I left LEGO, LEGO.com had been rationalized and unifiedthrough:
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Navigation:Simplified and consistent across the portal, with aligned terminology
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Standardized components:Product landing & detail pages, video player, LEGO ID (incl. cross-platform avatar builder), digital building instructions (early work), and digital holiday card templates
Organizational Impact
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Established a dedicated UX team with design and research capabilities
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Introduced LEGO’s first digital guidelines and quality measurement framework, aligning digital output with LEGO’s quality principles
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Delivered designs for LEGO.com and apps, while consulting broadly across LEGO IT, LEGO Education, and the wider organization