Redesigning mobile navigation to better align with user shopping behaviour, enabling faster access to key categories, brands, and new arrivals.

Improving Product Discovery Through Mobile Navigation

Project Overview

Company: Browns Shoes
Role: As a UX/UI Designer, I led the restructuring of the mobile navigation experience, focusing on information architecture, category prioritization, and interaction design for mobile ecommerce browsing.
Duration: January 2026- May 2026
Tools: Figma

Browns Shoes’ ecommerce experience is predominantly mobile, with approximately 80% of customers shopping on mobile devices and over 85% of the customer base identifying as women. As a result, mobile navigation plays a critical role in product discovery and overall shopping behavior.

However, the existing mobile menu was not optimized for how customers browse and shop, creating friction in reaching key categories, collections, and brands. This resulted in increased interaction cost before users could access PLPs, particularly during high-intent shopping journeys where speed and clarity are essential.

Problem

The existing mobile navigation was structured around internal category groupings rather than customer shopping behavior.

Users were required to navigate through multiple layers before reaching relevant products, creating friction during high-intent shopping journeys. Seasonal priorities such as Waterproof Boots or Winter Boots were not easily surfaced, requiring customers to actively explore before discovering them.

In addition, product search existed as a separate destination, creating a disconnect between browsing and searching. Customers had to decide between navigation and search before beginning product discovery.

At the same time, merchandising teams had limited flexibility to highlight changing business priorities without relying on structural navigation updates.

Strategy

The redesign was guided by four principles:

Reduce friction

Customers should be able to reach relevant products with as little effort as possible. I focused on shortening navigation paths and reducing the number of interactions required to access high-intent categories.

Improve product discovery

The navigation was restructured to better reflect how customers shop, making key categories, brands, and seasonal collections easier to find and explore.

Bring search into the discovery experience

Browsing and searching are both important parts of the shopping journey. By integrating search directly into the navigation, customers can move seamlessly between exploring categories and finding specific products.

Design for flexibility and scale

The navigation needed to support evolving merchandising priorities without requiring structural changes. The solution provides a stable foundation that can adapt to seasonal campaigns, new categories, and future growth.

Reduce friction

Improve product discovery

The navigation was restructured to better reflect how customers shop, making key categories, brands, and seasonal collections easier to find and explore.

Bring search into the discovery experience

Design for flexibility and scale

Reduce friction

Bring search into the discovery experience

Improve product discovery

The navigation was restructured to better reflect how customers shop, making key categories, brands, and seasonal collections easier to find and explore.

Bring search into the discovery experience

Design for flexibility and scale

Navigation Structure

To better support product discovery, I restructured the information architecture around shopping intent rather than organizational hierarchy.

Old Structure

Too many nested layers

Mixed promotional + structural items
Unclear hierarchy

Problem with Current Structure

Users must decide WHERE to go before they discover WHAT is available.

Example:

Deep category exploration

Merchandising opportunities separated from shopping paths
Seasonal priorities require users to discover them
High-intent categories are not surfaced immediately

New Structure

To better support product discovery, I restructured the navigation around how customers shop rather than how products are organized internally.

The new structure surfaces key categories earlier, reduces navigation depth, and introduces flexible merchandising placements for seasonal priorities.

I also integrated Search directly into the navigation, giving customers a faster way to find specific products, brands, or styles without leaving the discovery journey.

Together, these changes transform the menu from a navigation tool into a unified product discovery experience.

Reducing Navigation Depth

One of the primary goals was to decrease the effort required for customers to reach relevant products while making the navigation easier to explore and understand.

BEFORE: 4 taps

AFTER: 2 taps

By surfacing seasonal and high-intent categories at the first navigation level, customers can access relevant products significantly faster while spending less time navigating through intermediary pages.

50 % Fewer Interactions

Reduced path length from 4 taps to 2 taps for key seasonal categories.

Integrated Search

Search is available at the point of discovery, supporting both browsing and direct product lookup.

Discovery-First Structure

Navigation is organized around customer intent rather than internal catalog structure.

Flexible Navigation for Seasonal Priorities

A key challenge was balancing a stable information architecture with constantly changing merchandising needs.

To address this, I introduced dynamic merchandising slots within the primary navigation. These placements allow marketing teams to highlight seasonal priorities such as Waterproof Boots, Winter Boots, Sandals, or Back-to-School categories without requiring changes to the core navigation structure.

This approach creates a more adaptable navigation system that evolves alongside customer demand while maintaining consistency and usability.

Final Solution

The redesigned navigation provides dedicated pathways for Women, Men, Kids, and Sale while maintaining a consistent interaction pattern across all sections.

Key improvements include:

Simplified category hierarchy

Faster access to products
Integrated search experience
Flexible merchandising placements
Improved scanability on mobile

Interactive Prototype

Explore the redesigned navigation experience, including category browsing, search integration, and seasonal merchandising pathways.

Strategic Impact

Faster Product Discovery

The redesigned navigation reduces friction between intent and action by surfacing high-priority categories, integrating Search, and shortening paths to key shopping destinations.

Greater Merchandising Agility

Dynamic navigation placements enable seasonal campaigns and business priorities to evolve without requiring changes to the underlying information architecture.

Unified Discovery Experience

By bringing navigation and Search closer together, the experience supports both exploratory browsing and goal-oriented shopping within a single discovery journey.

Scalable Foundation

The new structure establishes a flexible framework that can accommodate future categories, collections, and merchandising initiatives while maintaining consistency and usability.

Faster Product Discovery

The redesigned navigation reduces friction between intent and action by surfacing high-priority categories, integrating Search, and shortening paths to key shopping destinations.

Greater Merchandising Agility

Dynamic navigation placements enable seasonal campaigns and business priorities to evolve without requiring changes to the underlying information architecture.

Unified Discovery Experience

By bringing navigation and Search closer together, the experience supports both exploratory browsing and goal-oriented shopping within a single discovery journey.

Scalable Foundation

The new structure establishes a flexible framework that can accommodate future categories, collections, and merchandising initiatives while maintaining consistency and usability.

Faster Product Discovery

The redesigned navigation reduces friction between intent and action by surfacing high-priority categories, integrating Search, and shortening paths to key shopping destinations.

Greater Merchandising Agility

Dynamic navigation placements enable seasonal campaigns and business priorities to evolve without requiring changes to the underlying information architecture.

Unified Discovery Experience

By bringing navigation and Search closer together, the experience supports both exploratory browsing and goal-oriented shopping within a single discovery journey.

Unified Discovery Experience

By bringing navigation and Search closer together, the experience supports both exploratory browsing and goal-oriented shopping within a single discovery journey.

Scalable Foundation

The new structure establishes a flexible framework that can accommodate future categories, collections, and merchandising initiatives while maintaining consistency and usability.