Portfolio | Improving The Navigation

Project Overview

I was tasked with adding some additional functionality to our websites in the form of a utility navigation bar. We wanted a way to call out a few more of our most visited sections of the site, a search feature, and social channel links. Instead of redoing our main navigation, we thought that adding a small navigation at the top would be the best solution.

Delivery

UI/UX Design
Competitive Research
XD Prototypes

Date

2020

The Challenge

Add functionality to the sites that is consistent with our brand and brings our most frequently visited pages to a prime position. The goal long-term is to review our data and usability each quarter and make changes to these links when we see a pattern.

The Solution

I decided that a second navigation at the top of our site would be a good solution. It would not take away from our main navigation, but still allow us to utilize a prime position for pages that are visited frequently, a search bar, and our social channels.

Research & Initial Designs

I began by researching competitors and gaining inspiration from mood boards. I didn’t find a lot of our competitors that utilized a secondary navigation at the top of their sites. However, I still believed that this was the best solution and I would rely on user testing to confirm my hunch.

User Testing

Once I had the top of our homepage redesigned to include a utility navigation, I decided to conduct further user testing with a few members of our marketing team as well as a few client relationship directors. I walked them through our designs which helped me confirm my hunch and ensure the user is kept in mind. After the participants reviewed the updated navigation, I simply asked for feedback.

Prototype Development

Once all of the user testing and improvements were made, I started prototyping. I designed and prototyped the utility navigation in Adobe XD. I sent this file, with build comments, to our developers so they could code it, have enough time for internal testing, and then push it to production.

Live Site & Reflection

This project took a few months from start to finish. We wanted to ensure we understood our problem and solution clearly. We also made sure that this entire secondary navigation would be customizable for us internally so we’d have the ability to update quickly when we saw trends on our site change.

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Improving The Navigation