Menu Consolidation

Full overhaul of system navigation

The Challenge

Navigation is the core of any good interface, but in our legacy system our users were often in the dark. Tasks were fragmented across multiple web apps like “Asset Manager” or “Asset Accountant” depending on user permissions. The fix seemed simple: consolidate everything into core apps like “Assets” or “Payables,” with permission-based visibility in each. But each legacy app dragged along over 100 menu items in this deeply nested tree.

My Approach

I had to resolve years of navigation debt without being the subject matter expert for any financial niche. Instead of guessing, our product teams were tasked with defining 9 or fewer categories for the menu items. Their expertise saved me the trouble of catastrophically getting categories wrong without user input.

The Hurdle

Now all those hundreds of sidebar menu items needed to live somewhere on these pages. I needed to ensure this wasn’t just going to be the same problem pushed to a different place, so I spent a good amount of time finding ways to categorize navigation sections alongside our product owners.

The Results

I anticipated the inevitable “where’d you move my stuff?” which we accounted for by implementing improved keyword searches. Even if a user wanted to find the legacy label for something, it would surface the correct item and take them to the new page. Given more time and support, I would have liked to conduct some user tests and gather more feedback from our clients. I don’t think our first stab was perfect, but it certainly made navigation more efficient for browsing.