Michael’s navigational upgrade
Redesigning navigation for America's largest
arts & crafts retailer.
Navigation changes at this scale carry real business risk. Executives needed to see validate every choice before approving anything — which meant design decisions required sign-off at every stage. Building trust with leadership was as important as designing the right solution.
Problem
Browse navigation was dated, causing friction and burying high-value services. Business needed more category engagement — without disrupting existing revenue.
Role
Lead design process end to end, help scale out design systems, managed expectations from stakeholders and users, worked with PMs and engineers to bring designs to life.
Dependency
Business partners, and Marketing Partners needed to agree on each step. Couldn’t make too big of a change to the UI so needed to use current components.
What I Contributed:
Identified goals and pain points
Held a workshop for stakeholders to understand goals and pain points.
Validated potential solutions
Utilized Baymard UX Audit to validate potential solutions
Leveraged Heat Maps
Collected heat maps to understand the customer touch points.
Conducted User Interviews
User tested current users to see how they felt about the navigation. Used AI synthesize information.
Rapid Iterations
Created 100s of designs along side leadership to make sure our solution was effective
Communication
with Engineers
with Engineers
Documented flows and prototypes to communicate designs to developers.
Visual Quality Assurance
Provided corrections to the staging environment.
Scaled Design Systems
Scaled components to relevant devices using our variable library.
Identifying Problems
Confusing Navigation
Customers don’t knowing if they’re headed down the right category group.
Too Much Friction
Took up to 5 clicks to get into specific categories. Customers dropped halfway through.
Lack of Visibility
Customers could not find services such as “Buy Again”, Events, to the top of the page
Header
Desktop
Customers don’t know where to look. Links are sprinkled without intent on desktop.
Mobile
Most of our menu is hidden. There is no clear hierarchy; customers have to guess where to go.
Menu
Desktop
Too many clicks, high bounce rates.
Mobile
Not easy to scan. Leaves customers going in and out of drawers.
RESEARCH
User Testing and Interviews
We gathered and synthesized information from internal workshops & user interviews using Marvin AI to create our own repository of information were we could leverage and ask our AI questions about our customers.
Stakeholder and Customer Insights
Research
Competitive Analysis
We looked at how other e-commerce sites organized their navigation, looked at their hierarchy, and wanted to find out what worked well.
Opportunities
We audited other companies to see what could work well for us.
Prioritize CMS Links
Add a section on the navigation that business and marketing can control.
Simplify Navigation
Reduce the number of clicks needed to find products, services. and important links.
Visual Language
Add imagery for faster scanning.
Ideations and Feedback
I worked with the overseas teams to generate multiple layouts that highlighted key features.
Final Designs
Improved Hierarchy
Improved hierarchy with most popular features and categories.
Positive Feedback
Positive feedback from current customers who discover new categories.
Better Visibility
Consolidating service offerings in one place page increased visits.
Mobile
Before
After
Header Changes
- Navigation is intentional
- Search field exposed
- Useful links prioritized
New Shop Menu
Raised popular categories to the top of the menu
Service Menu
Consolidated all services into one drawer on the menu.
Desktop
Before
Categories were hidden
Headers were cluttered
Useful pages were not prioritized
After
Navigation is laid out
Services are consolidated
Useful links are accessible
New Shop Menu
Most options can now be found within 2 clicks.
Service Menu
Consolidated all services into one drawer on the menu.
Feedback from Customers
Impact
If I could go back, I would lean more into breaking the mold and trying something new outside our design system.
The limiting factors were the outdated branding and design systems. Stakeholders feared that making too many changes would result in a loss of revenue. If I had the opportunity, I would expand our search menu to include more popular categories, create scalable responsive components, and declutter the current experiences.
