Information Architecture & Navigation Design – Samsara
I led a global project focused on streamlining the site structure of 7 Samsara websites and improving the usability of the navigation.
Skills used: strategy, information architecture, Figma, wireframes, user research, analytics
The Challenge
Confusing site structure: The existing hierarchy of pages and URL structure across Samsara websites did not follow an identifiable format that allowed users to understand where they were within the site or easily navigate to new areas of the site.
Usability issues: The current navigation didn’t follow user experience best practices and was challenging to use, causing user errors, frustration, and site exits.
Not data-driven: Historically, new pages were published without analytics or user insights.
Strategy
As the first UX & design team member dedicated to Samsara’s digital team, my holistic strategy for the sites was to implement UX best practices – specifically focusing on information architecture and navigation. Giving users a sense of place and making it easy for them to get from point A to point B was foundational to all future UX improvements on the sites. I created a comprehensive project plan & socialized it with stakeholders, making refinements to project scope, goals, and KPIs based on feedback. The project included these activities:
Site audit
Moderated user testing (two rounds)
Data analytics & insights
Site architecture working session
Wireframes
Stakeholder feedback
Design
Development, QA, and Launch
Measure & Report
Deliverables
Information Architecture: A strategy for organizing and maintaining site content and relationships between each piece of content – including, website structure, organization, and nomenclature of navigation elements.
Website Navigation Design: A scalable & flexible navigation design for desktop and mobile, focused on improving the efficiency of user interactions with the navigation and meaningfully representing the Samsara brand.
The Process
Audit Existing Site Structure
I began the process by auditing the existing site – documenting and mapping pages and links so that I could identify how the site was organized. I did not find a clear structure for the existing site and identified many UX issues within pages.
Moderated User Interviews
Next, I conducted five moderated interviews with external users who mimicked our target customers. My goals were to:
Identify user interaction patterns and errors in the navigation
Understand the motivations and behaviors of users on Samsara.com who are using the navigation
Identify opportunities to improve the navigation user experience
Users were asked to consider a scenario in which they were doing online research on Samsara’s offerings. Users were asked to complete tasks on the website that allowed us to assess the findability and discoverability of content.
Moderated user interview assessing exiting navigation menu
Insights from current navigation usage
Using page-level analytics, I was able to identify themes in website user behavior:
User interaction with the navigation was extremely low.
The Solutions section of the navigation had the lowest engagement rates – only one link in the menu has a CTR above 0.1%.
Users are not engaging with featured content in the navigation menu.
Within Products, the Platform Overview & App Marketplace links have the highest engagement rates.
Login is the most clicked item in the navigation bar.
See entire presentation below for details.
Site Architecture Workshop
I led a session with cross-functional partners and team members to come up with a recommended site structure. Considerations:
SEO Strategy
Content Strategy
Business & User Goals
Company Values & Operating Principles
Analytics
User research
UX best practices
Global Site Maps
With input from the design workshop, I created site maps for all 7 Samsara websites. This exercise allowed me to understand how well the new structure could be scaled globally and provided insights on how we could scale the structure for future business growth.
Navigation Design
To kick off the design process, I looked across the web for navigation UX best practices and explored how Samsara competitors organized their navigation menu. I also looked at other B2B companies with hardware and software offerings, to see how they presented their products & solutions.
Using established styles from our digital design system, I created multiple rounds of wireframes that explored how a new navigation bar and menu could function.
Second round of moderated user interviews
I completed a second round of moderated user interviews to validate the new site structure and navigation design using an interactive prototype. Users completed the same tasks completed in the first round of interviews so we could evaluate how the new UX performed.
Visual Design
After the new site structure and UX was approved, I partnered closely with our Brand & Creative team to finalize the visual design and functionality. We created a specification file for our developer team with detailed guidance on functionality and layout, font sizing, spacing, color, etc.
Development
During development, I partnered closely with our engineers to complete quality assurance and test functionality across each regional site, including device-specific testing.
Launch & Measure
The new site structure and navigation went live – launching in all 7 regions. We shared updates with internal stakeholders and monitored site performance.
Visit Samsara.com to view the new experience!
The Impact
60 days after launching the updated information architecture & navigation design, we saw:
Improved click rate (session level, US) for all navigation bar elements, including:
Solutions +216% | from 1.43% (Products) & 0.57% (Solutions) to 3.16%
Resources +714% | from 0.34% (Resources) & 0.23% (Customers) to 2.32%
About +158% | from 0.98% to 2.53%
Login +8% | from 22.5% to 24.3%
Check Our Prices +437%, from 0.35% to 1.88%
Improved Site-wide metrics:
Views +117%
Sessions +12%
Views/Session +92%
Exit -46%