Enterprise Utility Platform Navigation Redesign
UX Research Lead | Mixed Methods | Enterprise Digital Transformation
TL;DR: Led a four-study research program to redesign the navigation architecture of a large-scale utility platform. By prioritizing customer intent, the redesign reduced task friction and secured leadership approval for implementation across the enterprise digital ecosystem.
Note on Confidentiality: Details have been generalized to respect proprietary information while preserving the research decisions, methods, and outcomes.
• Leading a large-scale multi-phase research program to shape platform architecture decisions.
• Translating customer mental models into system architecture for goal-driven digital systems.
• Driving enterprise product change through evidence-based navigation redesign and validation.
WHAT THIS CASE DEMONSTRATES
The platform served millions of customers completing critical tasks such as paying bills, reporting outages, and managing service. However, the navigation system had evolved around internal program structures rather than customer behavior, making key actions difficult to locate.
As part of a broader digital transformation initiative, leadership needed evidence to determine:
? What should navigation prioritize- content discovery or task completion?
? How should high-frequency utility actions be structured in the navigation hierarchy?
Without research, these decisions risked reinforcing internal assumptions rather than improving task accessibility.
THE DECISION GAP
My role: I led the research end-to-end and partnered closely with designers and digital leadership throughout the redesign where I:
• Designed and executed a four-study research program.
• Synthesized insights into navigation architecture recommendations.
• Collaborated with designers to iterate IA directions between studies.
• Presented decisions to be made and aligned on recommendations with digital leadership.
RESEARCH CONSTRAINTS
This work needed to operate within real organizational constraints:
Utility platforms support task completion, not browsing, creating navigational tension.
Goal-Based Exploration
Measurement across all studies was standardized since each study informed the next. I prioritized the metrics used to evaluate the information architecture-
• Task success rate
• Time on task
• UMUX-Lite usability score
• User preference
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Cross-Platform Dependency
Navigation structured experiences across desktop web, mobile web, and app.
Enterprise Complexity
Leaders required strong evidence that improvements would not create regressions.
I structured the research as a four-study program. Across the four studies, approximately 2000 participants- about 500 per study- participated, representing our diverse customer segments. Each informed the next stage of the redesign, allowing findings to undergo multiple rounds of validation.
Each study was administered as a quantitative survey and mapped to one decision gate in the redesign:
Language → Hierarchy → Skeleton → Validation
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Study 1 aligned terminology with how customers naturally describe utility tasks and services.
Study 2 mapped customer goals into potential navigation hierarchies.
Study 3 tested competing navigation structures derived from earlier research.
As we moved through the studies, the aim was to validate improvements without regressions across user segments.
Study 4 benchmarked the current navigation experience and tested the redesigned navigation using identical tasks.
EXECUTION OVERVIEW
The research progressed as an iterative cycle of study → synthesis → alignment → design iteration → next decision gate.
After each study:
• Findings were synthesized and shared with digital leadership.
• Designers were brought in to collaborate on the next navigation iteration.
• The next study validated or refined the proposed structure.
The final validation study compared the redesigned navigation against the existing experience using the same task scenarios and usability metrics.
This ensured that recommendations were grounded in measurable improvements rather than subjective preference.
KEY JUDGMENT CALLS
1. Organize navigation around tasks
Rather than organizing navigation around internal program areas and promotional priorities, we used customer goals as the primary organizing principle.
Tradeoff: Decreased browsing complexity for customers but made branded promotions less visible.
2. Simplify navigational hierarchy
Research showed that deep menu structures slowed task discovery. We intentionally reduced the number of primary navigation categories and surfaced critical tasks more directly.
Tradeoff: To establish a clear path to essential actions, tasks with consistent importance for customers were elevated over programs the business wanted to promote.
3. Replace internal terminology with customer language
Internal labels were replaced with terminology to match how customers naturally describe utility services.
Tradeoff: To improve clarity and task success, we chose to use natural language over branded program names that intended to reinforce brand recognition.
KEY FINDINGS (AND WHY THEY MATTERED)
Across studies, a consistent pattern emerged: customers approached the platform through task intent rather than content exploration. Previously, navigation structures were organized around internal programs, creating friction, forcing users into “hunt-and-find” behavior when attempting to complete tasks.
By aligning navigation with real customer goals, we significantly improved findability and usability. This revealed that the challenge was structural rather than informational. The architecture itself needed to reflect how customers approach the platform.
Improved findability and reduced time on task for critical journeys including billing, outage reporting, and service management.
IMPACT
Shifted user preference toward the new design for participants and independent testing panels through research-led redesign.
Reduced navigation confusion by aligning architecture with real customer task intent.
In service ecosystems like utilities, navigation is not merely interface chrome; it is a task completion infrastructure.
When customers arrive with clear intent but encounter poor findability, it creates frustration and task failure. Durable redesigns must align platform architecture with real user behavior while remaining feasible within complex technical systems.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Secured buy-in from digital leadership and senior IT stakeholders, enabling implementation of the redesigned navigation across the enterprise digital ecosystem.
WHAT I’LL CARRY FORWARD
Here are some key takeaways from this study that taught me more about research-
Navigation systems should mirror what people come to accomplish, not how organizations structure content.
Benchmarking and comparative validation build leadership confidence by demonstrating measurable improvements.
For large-scale platforms, research is most impactful when structured as decision gates that progressively reduce uncertainty.