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Summary

Context

Design Approach

Selected Work

Results

Takeaways

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Summary

Context

Design Approach

Selected Work

Results

Takeaways

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Universal Destinations & Experiences

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Shipped 2023—2024

Universal Orlando & Hollywood: Implementing seasonal campaign content & more at scale

My work across Universal Mardi Gras, Halloween Horror Nights, and the Studio Tour 60th Anniversary were shipped as seasonal webpages & mobile app content throughout 2024!

My Discover Universal integrations for 5 Islands of Adventure attractions shipped in late 2023 and are permanently live on Universal Orlando Resort's website 🎉

On Universal's Global UX/UI Design team, I supported 3 cross-functional Scrum teams designing consumer-facing web & app experiences for Universal Orlando Resort & Universal Studios Hollywood. I shipped webpages across 3 major seasonal campaigns and 5 evergreen content strategies, plus supported usability testing for a new Universal Play experience that launched in March 2025.

Roles

UI/UX

Documentation

Usability Testing

TimeLine

8 months

Team

1 UX/UI Manager

4 Senior Designers

1 Senior UX Researcher

2 UX Writers

3 Marketing Scrum Teams

Results Summary

  • Co-authored documentation aligning internal & external teams on standardized team processes that reduced design review cycles, sped up project handoffs, and supported design system migration from Sketch to Figma.

  • Leveraged the Global Design System to expedite shipment of ~30+ webpages across 3 major seasonal campaigns and 5 evergreen content integrations into attraction webpages, ensuring stakeholders can launch campaigns on-schedule without sacrificing UI consistency.

  • Supported usability testing sessions for a new Universal Play experience within Universal Orlando Resort's app, which became a direct engagement channel for guests using Second Generation Interactive Wands at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter post-March 2025 launch.

Context

High-volume, consumer-facing digital strategy

Universal's digital presence is critical to revenue generation. With both Universal Orlando Resort & Universal Studios Hollywood seeing high park attendance each year, seasonal event marketing drives immediate ticket and resort package sales through their web & app platforms.

The Global UX/UI team operates under tight timelines and frequent updates to promote seasonal park events and e-commerce campaigns. Unlike longer-term themed entertainment projects at Universal Creative, my team's work mandated speed & consistency to launch consumer-facing campaign content on digital platforms.

2024 Park Attendance Stats

21M+

annual visitors across Universal Orlando Resort

8.7M+

annual visitors to Universal Studios Hollywood

Design Approach

Scaled efficiency through atomic design & documentation

I.

Leveraging the Global Design System

Leveraging the Global Design System

Problem

Problem

Multiple cross-functional teams, inconsistent handoffs, and the need to ship several screens under quick turnaround times while maintaining brand consistency.

Multiple cross-functional teams, inconsistent handoffs, and the need to ship several screens under quick turnaround times while maintaining brand consistency.

Solution

Solution

The Global Design System (GDS) — Universal's in-house design system — utilizes an atomic design structure featuring foundations, atoms, molecules, organisms, and page templates. Teams referenced GDS component specs in Storybook, ensuring consistent UI patterns across all screens and reducing design review cycles.

The Global Design System (GDS) — Universal's in-house design system — utilizes an atomic design structure featuring foundations, atoms, molecules, organisms, and page templates. Teams referenced GDS component specs in Storybook, ensuring consistent UI patterns across all screens and reducing design review cycles.

Results

Results

Using GDS eliminated low-level decisions and lets the Global UX/UI team focus on alignment with stakeholder requirements, allowing for faster project shipment times.

Using GDS eliminated low-level decisions and lets the Global UX/UI team focus on alignment with stakeholder requirements, allowing for faster project shipment times.

II.

Documentation as a scaling tool

Documentation as a scaling tool

Problem

Problem

Multiple teams—marketing, e-commerce, developers, and external agencies—often worked on the same projects, but handoffs were unclear and processes varied between teams, causing pushback & unnecessary friction.

Multiple teams—marketing, e-commerce, developers, and external agencies—often worked on the same projects, but handoffs were unclear and processes varied between teams, causing pushback & unnecessary friction.

Solution

Solution

I worked closely with a senior designer to author documentation on standard operating processes for marketing Scrum team projects, including (but not limited to):

I worked closely with a senior designer to author documentation on standard operating processes for marketing Scrum team projects, including (but not limited to):

  • Page Templates: Helps new & existing team members migrate GDS components from Sketch to Figma

  • Image Optimization Guidelines: Specifies safe zones & image dimensions for internal team & external vendor use

Results

Results

Documentation became the single source of truth for new projects, reducing clarification requests and enabling teams to move faster without sacrificing consistency.

Documentation became the single source of truth for new projects, reducing clarification requests and enabling teams to move faster without sacrificing consistency.

Selected Work

Shipping seasonal content at scale

Throughout 2023—2024, I shipped ~30+ web & mobile app screens across 3 major seasonal campaigns at the Orlando & Hollywood parks:

Selected shipped screens from Universal Mardi Gras 2024

Each campaign included event information pages (e.g. schedules, maps) seasonal food & drink menus, and limited-time attraction/show information. Concurrent to seasonal events, there would also be limited time ticket & package promotions that leveraged Universal's ICE e-commerce platform.

I aligned marketing & developer teams on standard cross-team processes, then partnered with them to integrate campaign content across existing page templates. In addition to ensuring content launched on schedule, I optimized image assets for accessibility compliance & performance to reduce load times across devices.

Discover Universal integration

Concurrent with campaign work, I integrated Discover Universal content across 5 Islands of Adventure attraction pages with the DTM Scrum team. This required thoughtful content strategy to balance marketing goals with user discovery patterns.

The goal was to increase consumer engagement and brand visibility for Universal Orlando Resort, while providing SEO and content strategists a clearer path to publish evergreen content without requiring a design ticket for each new update.

Discover Universal content integrations I implemented: Jurassic World VelociCoaster, Doctor Doom's Fearfall, Flight of the Hippogriff, Skull Island: Reign of Kong, and Jurassic Park River Adventure.

Usability testing for a new spellbinding experience

Universal Creative was developing a new Universal Play experience as a companion app for the upcoming launch of Second Generation Interactive Wands at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I supported 2 senior designers with conducting usability testing to validate interaction patterns before the full product launch in March 2025. We facilitated initial user testing sessions in-office before conducting large-scale play test sessions with teams at Universal Creative.

Coming from a graphic design background, this was my first formal experience with UX research in my career. This reinforced how crucial early user feedback is to shipping a product people actually want to use.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter's Universal Play experience within the Universal Orlando app

Information on using the Universal Play experience with the new Wands (source)

Results

Documentation adoption & team efficiency

Documentation adoption & team efficiency

The documentation I co-authored for the Global UX/UI & collaborating teams were adopted as standards within weeks of shipment:

The documentation I co-authored for the Global UX/UI & collaborating teams were adopted as standards within weeks of shipment:

  • Fewer design review cycles: Teams self-verified compliance against documented standard operating processes before submission.

  • Faster project handoffs: External agencies could reference the image guidelines directly, eliminating back-and-forth on asset specifications.

  • Streamlined design tool migration: Having standardized team processes set in place helped streamline the team's migration from Sketch to Figma.

Campaign launches & Discover Universal integration

Campaign launches & Discover Universal integration

Throughout 2024, shipping ~30+ production-ready pages across 3 major seasonal campaigns demonstrated the team's ability to execute under pressure without sacrificing consistency, with on-time page launches for each campaign I was involved with.

Throughout 2024, shipping ~30+ production-ready pages across 3 major seasonal campaigns demonstrated the team's ability to execute under pressure without sacrificing consistency, with on-time page launches for each campaign I was involved with.

Meanwhile: 5 evergreen content integrations for Discover Universal went live on Universal Orlando Resort's main site in late 2023, creating long-term SEO and content marketing values.

Meanwhile: 5 evergreen content integrations for Discover Universal went live on Universal Orlando Resort's main site in late 2023, creating long-term SEO and content marketing values.

New Universal Play experience & Wands rolled out across 3 theme parks in 2025

New Universal Play experience & Wands rolled out across 3 theme parks in 2025

In March 2025, the new Universal Play experience for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter launched alongside the Second Generation Interactive Wands at 3 theme parks at Universal Orlando Resort:

In March 2025, the new Universal Play experience for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter launched alongside the Second Generation Interactive Wands at 3 theme parks at Universal Orlando Resort:

  • March 2025: Universal Studios Florida & Islands of Adventure

  • May 2025: Epic Universe (alongside park's grand opening)

The accompanying Universal Play experience became a direct engagement channel for guests using the new Wands, increasing time spent at each parks' Wizarding World areas. This also enables further research on guest behavior, informing future product development.

The accompanying Universal Play experience became a direct engagement channel for guests using the new Wands, increasing time spent at each parks' Wizarding World areas. This also enables further research on guest behavior, informing future product development.

Takeaways

Meeting business needs comes first

Meeting business needs comes first

Designing in the UX space isn't about pushing pixels—it's about solving business problems within real constraints. Universal's seasonal events have fixed launch dates, fixed budgets, and fixed success metrics (ticket sales, resort bookings). Understanding why a feature was being built forced me to make smarter design decisions aligned with user needs and business goals.

Designing in the UX space isn't about pushing pixels—it's about solving business problems within real constraints. Universal's seasonal events have fixed launch dates, fixed budgets, and fixed success metrics (ticket sales, resort bookings). Understanding why a feature was being built forced me to make smarter design decisions aligned with user needs and business goals.

Cross-functional collaboration at enterprise scale

Cross-functional collaboration at enterprise scale

Being on the Global UX/UI team was my first experience working across cross-functional marketing, dev, and product teams on an enterprise scale. I realized that being a UX designer meant being the middleman between multiple teams, so it was crucial for me to communicate quickly and often. Effective communication between teams ensured projects were delivered on time.

Being on the Global UX/UI team was my first experience working across cross-functional marketing, dev, and product teams on an enterprise scale. I realized that being a UX designer meant being the middleman between multiple teams, so it was crucial for me to communicate quickly and often. Effective communication between teams ensured projects were delivered on time.

Document everything to focus on the things that matter

Document everything to focus on the things that matter

Early on, I noticed pushback between teams during handoff. Instead of just absorbing the chaos, I embraced opportunities to create new solutions: templates, guidelines, checklists. Those small documentation artifacts had outsized impact — they let teams move faster and freed up senior designers to focus on harder strategic work.

This became a core part of my design philosophy — every subsequent role I've had since has involved documenting workflows or defining component specs. Looking back in 2026, I've realized that incorporating AI into design workflows essentially does the same thing as documentation — knocking out the low-level work so designers can get to crafting meaningful design solutions faster.

Early on, I noticed pushback between teams during handoff. Instead of just absorbing the chaos, I embraced opportunities to create new solutions: templates, guidelines, checklists. Those small documentation artifacts had outsized impact — they let teams move faster and freed up senior designers to focus on harder strategic work.

This became a core part of my design philosophy — every subsequent role I've had since has involved documenting workflows or defining component specs. Looking back in 2026, I've realized that incorporating AI into design workflows essentially does the same thing as documentation — knocking out the low-level work so designers can get to crafting meaningful design solutions faster.

Special Thanks…

To Melissa Tchen, Trang Thoman, Hannah Shackles, and Alex Manresa for giving me their guidance while learning how to design & collaborate on a larger scale. And huge shoutouts to Nicole Ciar and Sydney Wallace for giving me hands-on opportunities to conduct usability testing and design for accessibility!

My time at Universal taught me how to think like a product designer over just being a pixel pusher: prioritize ruthlessly, document obsessively, and communicate constantly. It also gave me exposure to how large digital organizations operate under real constraints: quick timelines, competing stakeholder needs, updating legacy systems, and the constant pressure to ship. That foundation has been invaluable in every role since.

To Melissa Tchen, Trang Thoman, Hannah Shackles, and Alex Manresa for giving me their guidance while learning how to design & collaborate on a larger scale. And huge shoutouts to Nicole Ciar and Sydney Wallace for giving me the opportunity to learn more about usability testing and accessibility.

My experience at Universal taught me how to think like a product designer instead of a pixel pusher: prioritize ruthlessly, document obsessively, and communicate constantly. It also gave me exposure to how large digital organizations operate under real constraints: quick timelines, competing stakeholder needs, updating legacy systems, and the constant pressure to ship. That foundation has been invaluable in every role since.

Kate holding up her Universal name tag in front of one of Universal Orlando's corporate office buikdings.
The Global UX/UI design team.
Spring 2024 internship cohort at UDX

My internship cohort in Spring 2024!

Want to learn more?

Unfortunately I cannot share more details here, but I'd love to share more over a call!

kate@katelundy.net

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kate lundy

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kate lundy

Work

Play

About

Let’s work together!

kate@katelundy.net

LinkedIn

Instagram

are.na

© 2024 Kate Lundy

kate lundy

Work

Play

About

Let’s work together!

kate@katelundy.net

LinkedIn

Instagram

are.na

© 2024 Kate Lundy

kate lundy

Work

Play

About

Let’s work together!

kate@katelundy.net

LinkedIn

Instagram

are.na

© 2024 Kate Lundy