Enterprise Utility Platform Navigation Redesign
UX Research Lead | Mixed Methods | Enterprise Digital Transformation
TL;DR: Led a multi-study research program to redesign the navigation architecture of a large-scale utility platform. By aligning navigation with customer task intent rather than internal program structures, the research improved findability, reduced task friction, and secured leadership approval to implement a redesigned navigation system 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 findings and recommendations to 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
1.
2.
3.
4.
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 progressing through decision gates:
Language → Structure → Selection → Validation
Across all studies, ~2000 participants (~500 per study) were engaged encompassing our diverse customer segments. Each informed the next stage of the redesign, ensuring even results underwent multiple rounds of validation:
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Covered all major interaction points (onboarding, usage, support, feedback).
Used role-based logic to ensure relevance without fragmenting metrics.
Prioritized signals that could be tracked release-over-release.
The goal was not just to understand what was happening now, but to create a measurement system the team could trust over time.
KEY JUDGEMENT CALLS
1. Organize navigation around tasks
Rather than structuring navigation around internal program areas, we prioritized customer goals as the primary organizing principle.
Tradeoff: Slightly less personalization in exchange for stronger trend analysis and higher decision confidence.
2. Designed for stakeholder trust, not just data collection
Each role experienced Beam differently, so success metrics were aligned to how decisions are actually made, not just how the system is used.
Tradeoff: More upfront design effort, but stronger buy-in and long-term reuse.
EXECUTION OVERVIEW
Stakeholder Interviews clarified interaction points, expectations, and definitions of success across roles.).
1.
Service Mapping helped visualize how Beam supports onboarding, daily use, support, and feedback loops.
2.
Survey Design on Qualtrics used custom routing logic and multiple pilots helped to reduce ambiguity and fatigue.
3.
Launch & Distribution was via email and Slack, aligning with existing Beam support channels.
4.
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 which created 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 customer 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 interface chrome but is 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.
Benchmark + comparative validation builds leadership confidence by demonstrating elemental improvements.
For large-scale platforms, research is most impactful when structured as decision gates that progressively reduce uncertainty.