Front-end development Blog and Portfolio for Ashley Watson-Nolan – Principal UI Engineer at Just
Eat Takeaway.com
Just Eat
In May 2015, I started work as part of the International Platform Improvements team at Just Eat.
Since then, I have lead the creation and development of the PIE Design System, specifically the Web Component System which powers our web platforms across Just Eat Takeaway.
As a Principal Engineer, my role is to work across JET's development teams to ensure that our websites are performant, accessible and consistent with our Design System.
For the launch of Skylanders Trap Team, TMW worked to create a launch experience that would connect across social channels and engage with those at the event.
We created a Twitter controlled baseball bat, that hit a Pinata – shaped like a bad guy from the game – every time someone tweeted with the event hashtag.
I worked on the interface and message passing between the tweets and the Arduino controlled bat.
The event was a great success with thousands of tweets recieved during the 3 hour event and the live stream coverage watched by hundreds online.
Lynx Peace
I led the development for the launch of the Lynx Peace campaign website.
A 3 month development project, I worked closely with the design team to create a site that is dynamic and visual, while working across a wide range of devices.
Starting out as a labs project, Lynx Mass Debates is a site driven by Twitter data sent through in realtime.
The site uses Node.js, connected up to the Twitter streaming API, to watch and display details of what people are talking about, visually displaying the results on screen.
Uncharted 3
I was lead front-end developer working on an advertising piece for the launch of Uncharted 3; an interactive JavaScript/Flash Facebook takeover game.
This was launched via an extension or bookmarklet downloaded by the user, dependent on the users browser, which then launched a game that overlaid their Facebook profile page.
Ford Interactive Showcase
In late 2012, I worked on an internal Ford project, creating an interactive infographic using CSS3 and Javascript.
The site used Raphael and CSS3 animations, fired by Javascript on user interaction and scrolling to bring the varying visuals to life.
Trinity Laban
In late 2010, I worked with Trinity Laban to create their first online digital Prospectus.
The site delivered a customisable experience unique for each user, utilising SVG, HTML5 geolocation and JavaScript to create an immersive, visual prospectus.
The Pensions Regulator
While working at Precedent, I worked on the rebuild of the Pensions Regulator website, which detailed the changes in pensions regulations for individuals and companies.
The site required a very modular and scalable approach to deliver a site that could be managed externally on handover, while designing for a site that holds a vast amount of content.
During my time at Precedent, I was the lead front-end developer across all of the RSPCA's UK Political Animal websites, as well as being involved in work for RSPCA Australia.
This culminated in working on their 2010 General Election website, working closely with designer Luke Fry.
During my time working with the RSPCA, we successfully evolved their brand, building a website very different from the conventional RSPCA offering, while keeping the identity of the charity at the heart of the project.
Toyota AYGO
I was lucky enough to be involved in the UK Trainer Launch of the Toyota AYGO, creating digital learning materials and activities for dealerships to engage with over the week long event.
Frontend Guidelines YouTube Channel
In March 2026, I started the Frontend Guidelines YouTube Channel, with the aim of releasing video content covering modern web tech, frontend AI workflows, and practical dev tips and tricks.
Watch this space for updates on the channel – and if you want to stay updated on new videos as they are made available, please subscribe!
If there are any topics you'd like to see me talk about, drop me a message; I'd love to hear from you.
In September 2025, I participated in the 2025 Yoto Developer Challenge, creating Animal Facts – a dynamic Yoto card, with narration by my 7 year old daughter, Alice.
The application was coded in JavaScript, using Netlify Edge functions to dynamically serve different audio depending on the listener's time of day and location.
We were lucky enough to be selected as the Yoto Panel prize winners as part of the competition, with the card now featured as part of the Yoto Digital Club Collection.
Developed in partnership with Zander Martineau, Kickoff is a lightweight, flexible and robust front-end framework that is a great starting point for any web site.
Kickoff aims to help devs get up and running as quickly as possible without adding the bloat that other frameworks can lead to.
The framework includes a Sass-based CSS framework, a responsive grid system, beautiful typographic styles, JavaScript helpers, utilities and a great set of boilerplates for a number of eventualities.
Developed in partnership with Zander Martineau, Statix makes creating and working with static HTML templates quick and easy.
Statix is built on top of Assemble, Kickoff and Grunt with the aim of harnessing the power of all three to give developers a solid starting point when building static sites or templating designs.