Global Navigation Redesign
Creative oversight | Content strategy | Research | User testing
The problem
The navigation system was too complicated/bloated. Navigation and site information were consistent problem areas in Foresee and OpinionLab survey feedback. Important and obvious information was too hard to find.
The problem
Current navigation system is too complicated/bloated. Navigation and site information were consistent issues in Foresee and OpinionLab survey feedback. Important and obvious information was too hard to find.
The strategy
Reduce cognitive load. The sheer volume of navigation links was too large and the taxonomy and hierarchy needed to be updated to better match customers’ mental model.
What did success look like?
Customer satisfaction improved by 10 points. We reduced navigation links by nearly 60%, updated copy using terms customers are familiar with, and refined the taxonomy.
Reduce cognitive load
My content strategy and UX content team conducted an extensive audit of both existing global navigation and in-page navigation. Voice of customer feedback and live user tests showed that our customers don’t rely on a single type of navigation, but instead use a combination of global navigation components, in page navigation instructions and links, and methods such as the “I want to” dropdown menu tree.
Recommend and validate
This approach required us to to strengthen the relationship between those types of navigation, utilizing the global navigation for top-level categories and data-driven selections of primary customer tasks. We also moved to a greater reliance on landing pages to offer contextual navigation links in-page as opposed to the kitchen-sink approach to the previous global navigation. To validate and refine our recommendations, multiple tree studies were performed and numerous usability tests were conducted to refine both taxonomy and terminology.
Results
This effort resulted in a reduction in global navigation links from a previous high of approximately 367 links to a current base of 148 links, a decrease of nearly 60%. This combined with more thoughtful landing page use and changes to in-page navigation instructions resulted in a 10 point customer satisfaction boost.
Really responsive pt. 2
This also marked the first time our navigation components were built responsively, displaying the appropriate header and footer navigation across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, including both web and native apps.
