Edie Marlowe, independent product designer, London
Crafting delightful, seamless, end-to-end digital experiences that empower users.
I make products shorter.
Since 2013 I've been taking steps out of the things people have to do online: booking a GP appointment, sending a meter reading, running a first payroll.
Get in touch
See the work
Taking one new contract from January 2027.
At the studio on Wilton Way, Hackney.
Count the steps. Then take them out.
9
8
7
6
5
4
steps to book
Log in
Surgery
Patient
Birth date
Symptoms
Urgency
Address
Time slot
Confirm
The median time to book fell from 4 min 40 s to 1 min 15 s.
Walk it as a stranger.
In 2017, booking a GP appointment on SurgeryDesk took nine steps. I booked one every day for a fortnight, as a patient, and wrote each step down.
Strike what it already knows.
Five of the nine asked for something the surgery had on file or could work out: which surgery, which patient, your date of birth again, how urgent, your address.
Close the gaps.
Four steps were left: log in, say what's wrong, pick a time, confirm. Then I tested the shorter flow with patients before a line was built.
Selected work, counted.
Each project is told by what it took out. The struck number is how many there were when I started; the other is how many were left.
Stillwater Energy, 2020
Sending a meter reading
7
2
steps
The reminder email now carries a link that already knows the account and the meter. Point the phone's camera at the dial, check the number, send.
Readings sent on time rose from 61% to 88%, and estimated bills fell by a third.
Tallyroll, 2023
Running a first payroll
31
12
questions
Small employers were asked for every detail before they could see the product. Now it reads the rest from documents they already have, and leaves the pension set-up until the first pay day it matters.
The first payroll went from three days of back-and-forth to one sitting of about forty minutes.
“Edie sent us the count before she sent a proposal: thirty-one questions to run a payroll. We had never once counted.”
Hannah, Shoreditch
Brookmill Homes, 2024
Reporting a repair
14
5
questions
Tenants now choose the room, take a photo, say how bad it is and pick a morning or an afternoon. The tenancy number was always on file.
Repairs fixed on the first visit rose from 58% to 79%, because the photo tells the trade what to bring.
“She asked why we needed the tenancy number. Nobody could answer, so it went.”
Marcus, Deptford
Thirteen years, four teams.
In every one of them, the work that mattered most was something we took out.
2022 – now
Independent product designer
London
Contracts, audits and flow sprints for small product teams.
2019 – 2022
Lead product designer
Stillwater Energy
A team of four designers: bills, meter readings, moving home.
2016 – 2019
Senior product designer
SurgeryDesk
Appointment booking and repeat prescriptions for 140 GP surgeries.
2013 – 2016
Designer
Northbank Studio
Websites for charities and small museums, where I learned to write the words before drawing the screen.
Before that I studied graphic design in Leeds, 2009 to 2012.
Four ways to work together.
Each one starts the same way: before we agree anything, I walk your product as a stranger and send you the count. That part is free.
Contract product design
Three to six months, three or four days a week, inside your team.
From £650
a day
Design audit
Two weeks. I walk every main flow as a new customer, then send a written report and walk you through the twenty steps I would take out first.
From £5,200
fixed, two weeks
Flow sprint
One week on one flow, from the count to a tested prototype.
From £3,600
one week
Mentoring for designers
An hour on video, with written notes afterwards.
From £120
an hour
Taking one new contract from January 2027. Audits and sprints can start from November 2026.
Get in touch
I write about taking things out.
An essay a month in my letter, Fewer Steps, read by about 1,400 people.
Get the next one by email
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March 2026
The best screen is the one you delete
7 min
November 2025
Your form already knows
5 min
June 2025
Count the steps before you draw anything
6 min
January 2025
Defaults are decisions
8 min
Tell me the flow that worries you.
I'll walk it as a stranger and send you the count, free, before we talk about anything else.
hello@ediemarlowe.co.uk
020 7946 0284
WhatsApp 07700 900284
Hours
Monday to Thursday
9am–6pm
Friday
9am–1pm
Friday afternoons are for writing, so I don't take calls then.
Studio
Wilton Way, London E8 1BG
Meetings at the studio, at your office in London, or on video anywhere in the UK.
Send it to Edie