Luxury Platform Launch
Launching a premium car buying experience within platform constraints and brand expectations.
Project summary
Designed and launched a new luxury car buying experience for Marshall Motor Group on a mass market platform. Led UX direction across three squads, evolved Cinch’s design system, and defined photography standards under a six week deadline. The experience launched on time and established a scalable luxury framework for future premium brands.
Overview
Marshall Motor Group wanted to create a new digital outlet for selling luxury vehicles. A dedicated brand was established, with the website built on Cinch’s existing platform, which had originally been designed for mass market listings. Luxury cars that were currently listed on Marshall’s main website did not yet meet luxury brand expectations, risking lower trust and weaker engagement from premium buyers. This initiative supported a broader strategy to position luxury vehicles as a distinct digital offering, helping the business capture higher-margin segments without rebuilding the core platform.
My role
Led UX and visual direction across three cross functional squads, acting as the central design point of contact across product, engineering, brand, and external partners.
Project summary
Designed and launched a new luxury car buying experience for Marshall Motor Group on a mass market platform. Led UX direction across three squads, evolved Cinch’s design system, and defined photography standards under a six week deadline. The experience launched on time and established a scalable luxury framework for future premium brands.
Overview
Marshall Motor Group wanted to create a new digital outlet for selling luxury vehicles. A dedicated brand was established, with the website built on Cinch’s existing platform, which had originally been designed for mass market listings. Luxury cars that were currently listed on Marshall’s main website did not yet meet luxury brand expectations, risking lower trust and weaker engagement from premium buyers. This initiative supported a broader strategy to position luxury vehicles as a distinct digital offering, helping the business capture higher-margin segments without rebuilding the core platform.
My role
Led UX and visual direction across three cross functional squads, acting as the central design point of contact across product, engineering, brand, and external partners.
Alignment on luxury brand principles and target personas.
Approach
Defining the luxury experience
Ran a rapid alignment sprint to define luxury UX principles. Benchmarked automotive, fashion, and real estate platforms to identify premium signals such as restrained layouts, spacing, refined typography, and editorial imagery.
Early visual concepts were explored by applying insights from luxury benchmarking.
Designing within platform constraints
Evolved Cinch’s design system through spacing, typography hierarchy, new brand colours, and component behaviour changes. We considered creating bespoke luxury components, but this would have increased engineering scope and threatened the six week timeline. I prioritised system evolution to balance brand elevation with delivery certainty. Brand stakeholders initially pushed for a more expressive visual direction, while engineering emphasised reuse. I facilitated alignment workshops to agree on achievable luxury signals within platform constraints.
Designing within platform constraints
Evolved Cinch’s design system through spacing, typography hierarchy, new brand colours, and component behaviour changes. We considered creating bespoke luxury components, but this would have increased engineering scope and threatened the six week timeline. I prioritised system evolution to balance brand elevation with delivery certainty. Brand stakeholders initially pushed for a more expressive visual direction, while engineering emphasised reuse. I facilitated alignment workshops to agree on achievable luxury signals within platform constraints.
Example of how cinch components were adapted to Marshall brand
Photography standards
Defined framing, lighting, and background standards with Autos On Show and brand stakeholders to ensure consistent premium presentation.
Photography standards
Defined framing, lighting, and background standards with Autos On Show and brand stakeholders to ensure consistent premium presentation.
A new image background was introduced to ensure image consistancy across dealerships.
Focused delivery under time pressure
Worked with product owners to prioritise a tightly scoped MVP, deferring non essential enhancements to a post launch roadmap to maintain quality within the deadline.
Outcome
The experience launched on schedule within six weeks, delivering a refined digital storefront aligned with Marshall’s premium positioning.
The focused MVP scope enabled on time delivery with no critical feature cuts at launch. The project also established a reusable luxury framework within the platform, reducing onboarding effort for additional premium dealerships and informing later premium rollouts.
Following launch, early indicators showed stronger high intent behaviour compared to the same luxury vehicle listings on Marshall’s main website:
9% increase in progression from listing pages into detailed vehicle exploration
11% higher interaction with image galleries and vehicle specification content
7% increase in engagement with enquiry and finance related entry points
Internal stakeholders also reported improved alignment between the digital experience and Marshall’s in dealership luxury brand positioning.
Focused delivery under time pressure
Worked with product owners to prioritise a tightly scoped MVP, deferring non essential enhancements to a post launch roadmap to maintain quality within the deadline.
Outcome
The experience launched on schedule within six weeks, delivering a refined digital storefront aligned with Marshall’s premium positioning.
The focused MVP scope enabled on time delivery with no critical feature cuts at launch. The project also established a reusable luxury framework within the platform, reducing onboarding effort for additional premium dealerships and informing later premium rollouts.
Following launch, early indicators showed stronger high intent behaviour compared to the same luxury vehicle listings on Marshall’s main website:
9% increase in progression from listing pages into detailed vehicle exploration
11% higher interaction with image galleries and vehicle specification content
7% increase in engagement with enquiry and finance related entry points
Internal stakeholders also reported improved alignment between the digital experience and Marshall’s in dealership luxury brand positioning.
A core user journey was identified, which formed the basis of the MVP scope.
Key learnings
Luxury experiences rely as much on consistency and restraint as on visual polish
Early alignment is critical when brand direction is still evolving
Clear prioritisation enables high quality outcomes under aggressive timelines
What I would do next
The first phase focused on the core car discovery and browsing journey. A clear next step would be expanding into richer supporting content such as ownership benefits, aftersales services, financing guidance, and brand storytelling. This would build trust earlier in the decision journey and better match luxury competitor experiences.
Key learnings
Luxury experiences rely as much on consistency and restraint as on visual polish
Early alignment is critical when brand direction is still evolving
Clear prioritisation enables high quality outcomes under aggressive timelines
What I would do next
The first phase focused on the core car discovery and browsing journey. A clear next step would be expanding into richer supporting content such as ownership benefits, aftersales services, financing guidance, and brand storytelling. This would build trust earlier in the decision journey and better match luxury competitor experiences.
Final MVP version of the homepage.
Desktop view of the product detail page.
Mobile views from key parts of the core journey.
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