Navigation Redesign

Early Concept - Desktop

Early Concept - Mobile

Discovery - Type vs Activity

Discovery - REI as Knowledge Broker

Discovery - Navigation Test Results

Final Implementation

Challenge: Connecting Customers with REI's Full Value

REI's mission is "to inspire, educate, and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship." REI.com offers a rich ecosystem of inspirational content, educational programs, and high-quality gear. However, this content is often difficult for customers to find, leading to missed opportunities. For example, a customer buying a backpack might easily find product options but remain unaware of REI's valuable resources like backpack fitting guides, backpacking checklists, wilderness first aid classes, or even guided backpacking trips. Customers who do engage with this non-product content become more loyal and valuable. The key challenge is surfacing this content within the customer's natural browsing experience.

Goal

Enhance the discoverability of products, inspiration, and education on REI.com, leading to increased conversion rates and customer lifetime value.

Process & Approach

To address this challenge, I led a design initiative focused on a new navigation system. My process included:

Card Sorting: Understanding how customers naturally group REI's offerings.
Tree Testing: Evaluating the findability of content within proposed navigation structures.
Usability Studies: Assessing user behavior with the new design on both mobile and desktop platforms.
Design Leadership: Guiding the design effort for the overall project.

Key Insights & Design Principles

Activity-Based Organization: (Card Sort Results) The card sort revealed that organizing content by activity (e.g., hiking, camping, climbing) was the most intuitive approach for customers. This aligns with REI's brand and doesn't require users to learn a new mental model.
Menus as Implicit Checklists: (Tree Test Results) We discovered that a well-structured menu can function as an implicit checklist for an activity, prompting customers to discover related products and educational content organically.
Deeper Engagement, Higher Conversion: (Mobile Usability, Desktop Usability) Analytics showed significantly higher conversion rates for customers who navigated three levels deep into the site hierarchy. Our design, therefore, encouraged users to bypass the second level and directly access more specific, relevant content.

Outcome

The implementation of the new mega-menu navigation system resulted in:

Increased traffic to REI's educational content and adventure travel offerings.
A modest increase in product conversion rates.