Jackson Hewitt

Building trust through data for a US tax specialist

Jackson Hewitt is one of the largest tax preparation businesses in the US, with around 6,000 locations nationwide. I joined as Design Director to lead a customer experience transformation, working across digital and physical touchpoints to create a simpler, more connected experience.

Partnering with senior leaders across Product, Marketing, Technology and Operations, I shaped the experience strategy, led the design team and helped build the design capability needed to bring the vision to life.

The challenge

Jackson Hewitt’s customer experience had evolved across thousands of physical locations alongside a growing set of digital touchpoints. Customers moved between the two, but the experience wasn’t always connected, making it harder to understand what to do next or where to get help.

The opportunity was bigger than redesigning a website. We needed to create a connected experience across digital and physical channels, build stronger relationships with customers beyond tax season and establish foundations the organisation could continue to evolve.

The opportunity

Connect physical and digital
Digital tools could simplify tax filing, personalise customer interactions, and improve efficiency, benefitting both customers and staff.

Build relationships beyond tax season
Leveraging customer data from tax filings to offer tailored recommendations, supporting financial health beyond tax season.

Deepen trust and customer value
Combining digital innovation with trusted in-person interactions to foster deeper relationships, reduce churn, and increase lifetime value.

Create a connected customer profile
Designing a centralised, secure customer account as the foundation for a seamless and personalised experience.

Bring human expertise into digital
Enabling customers to self-serve through interactive tools while building trust with conversational features that emulate the in-store experience.

Screenshot of Jackson Hewitt tax service website featuring a smiling woman pointing to a text box with a promotion for $200 tax refund offer, with navigation options at the top and icons at the bottom for various services.

Imagining the future

We brought teams from across the organisation together to imagine what a more connected Jackson Hewitt experience could look like. Through collaborative workshops, we mapped the end-to-end customer journey, identified moments that mattered and explored how digital could better connect customers with Jackson Hewitt throughout the year.

The resulting experience vision gave teams a shared direction and helped turn a broad transformation ambition into something tangible enough to design, prioritise and deliver.

A wall with multiple pink, orange, green, blue, and red sticky notes arranged in columns related to topics called Prequal, Store Visit 1, Store Visit 2, and Refund.
Whiteboard filled with sketches, flowcharts, and notes, including illustrations of people and sticky notes, related to planning or brainstorming for a project.
A workspace with a long desk covered in colorful sticky notes and hand-drawn diagrams on large sheets of paper on the wall, indicating a planning or brainstorming session.
A detailed infographic illustrating a user journey that includes multiple screens and interactions such as messaging, account creation, transactions, and notifications in a step-by-step flow for a mobile app or website.
A detailed infographic illustrating a user journey that includes multiple screens and interactions such as messaging, account creation, transactions, and notifications in a step-by-step flow for a mobile app or website.

Bringing the vision to life

With the experience vision established, I worked with the team to translate it into a new digital experience, introducing clearer journeys, more relevant content and stronger connections between online and in-person support.

We designed around real customer needs rather than organisational structures, helping people understand where they were in their tax journey, what they needed to do next and how Jackson Hewitt could support them.

Design highlights

The new experience needed to feel unmistakably Jackson Hewitt: human, reassuring and approachable. We developed a visual and interaction language that brought the warmth of the in-person experience into digital:

  • The “Smile”: Inspired by the friendly, reassuring smiles of Jackson Hewitt’s in-branch Tax Pros, this curved element became a defining visual motif.

  • Expressive imagery: Bold cut-out photography and dynamic graphic elements brought energy and personality to the experience.

  • Conversational interactions: Chat-like interfaces echoed the personal, supportive nature of face-to-face conversations.

  • Playful details: Small moments of interaction added warmth and reassurance throughout the customer journey.

A woman with glasses smiling and holding a smartphone with a check mark on the screen, part of a digital interface about checking return status. The interface includes a profile photo of herself, a call to action to check your return status, and a button labeled 'Find an office' with icons representing different steps or features.

Building design capability

The transformation wasn’t only about creating a new customer experience. I also focused on giving Jackson Hewitt the foundations to continue evolving it after my engagement ended.

I helped establish a scalable design system, introduced more consistent ways of working and mentored the internal design team. I also built a wider community of practice, bringing people together around shared standards and strengthening the role of design across the organisation.

Two women sit at a table with large sheets of paper covered in notes, diagrams, and sticky notes, overlooking a cityscape with high-rise buildings and a body of water outside a window.

Results

The redesigned acquisition experience contributed to a 32% increase in appointments booked across Jackson Hewitt’s 6,000 locations.

Beyond the commercial impact, the work gave Jackson Hewitt a clearer experience vision, stronger design foundations and an internal team better equipped to continue evolving the customer experience.

Next client story:

A digital collage of overlapping cards and images including photos of women, text about finance and statistics, and an image of a historic clock tower, all set against a light background with a modern, minimalist design.

Bringing Digital to the Core of Wealth Management

I helped transform Charles Stanley’s digital experience, leading the design of a new logged-in platform and scalable design system. From portfolio insights to trading and account management, we turned complex investment journeys into a simpler, more distinctive experience.

View