Project: Navigation redesign
Client: Royal Mail
Company: EPAM
Date: October 2024
Skills used: Leading workshops, Wireframing & Prototyping, Usability testing, Requirement gathering, Stakeholder management, Content strategy
The problem: Royal Mail’s website had grown organically over time, with new content and sections added without a scalable structure in place. As a result, the navigation became confusing—users often didn’t know where they were on the site or how to move between sections confidently.
Solution: My role was to define the core navigation challenges and design a framework that could work across all Royal Mail domains. This included creating a consistent navigation pattern for desktop and mobile, helping users move more easily through the site, and supporting a more seamless experience across products.
Brief
The original request was to update the homepage and navigation to align with Royal Mail’s new brand guidelines, with a light UX review.
But once we took a closer look at the current site structure, it became clear that the issues went deeper. The site lacked a clear, scalable information hierarchy, and there was little consistency across Royal Mail’s different domains. This made it hard for users to understand where they were on the site, how to move between sections, and how different content and services related to each other.
Discovery
Initial workshop
We ran a boundary-mapping session to understand key user tasks and define the areas that needed the most attention. This helped align the team around priorities early on.
Desktop research
I reviewed the current information architecture and site frameworks, which revealed how siloed many of the journeys had become. Users often had no clear sense of where they were within the site or how different pages related to each other. There was little hierarchy or context across flows.
Competitor review
I looked at how organisations like the BBC and Apple handle complex navigation, especially how they use secondary navigation patterns. This inspired the idea of surfacing sub-sections dynamically, helping users stay oriented and move more confidently within an area.
Wireframing
Creating a range of navigation wireframes to explore different structural and interaction patterns.
Introduced dropdowns and tab features to test how they could support deeper content without overwhelming users.
The primary goal was to design a navigation system that could grow with the site, while always giving users a clear sense of where they are and what level of the site they’re in.
A key challenge was deciding how to separate the Business and Personal journeys. I explored options like:
Splitting the two with a prominent tabbed navigation.
Keeping them within a unified structure using dropdowns and labels to surface the distinction
Each option was stress-tested for both scalability and clarity, balancing user needs with internal management requirements.
Refinement of the navigation
As the structure evolved, I refined the navigation to better support depth and clarity across the site.
Introduced a dropdown menu to clearly surface the main areas of the site
Added a secondary and tertiary navigation to guide users through more complex journeys
Added a stepper to help users track progress and stay oriented in multi-step flows.
Page templates and site levels
A framework was designed to show how users move through the site and what navigation appears at each level—shaped around my understanding of the site’s needs.
This included planning the necessary templates and positioning them within the site to bring consistency and clarity.
UI design
Collaborating with a UI designer throughout the project, I helped refine and finalize the designs before briefing the development teams for implementation.
Usability testing
Organising workshops were held to align the team on what we wanted to test, define the necessary flows, and identify any assumptions.
A flow diagram was created to map out the pages and structure for the prototype.
I would then brief the Researcher on our initial thoughts to gather feedback before building the prototype.
Refinement and go live
Iterations from Usability testing
Feedback from usability testing led to several key updates:
Highlight the difference in brand perception when using different background colours.
Terminology used when funnelling users into their various journeys
Making the quick links more visible in the navigation
Go live amends
Presenting initial feedback to the development team on the recently launched live pages.
Go Live hierarchy
A review of all pages was conducted to define how each would work with the new navigation. A site map was created to visualize all areas and pages, illustrating how they would appear within the updated navigation structure.
Client feedback
What began as a 3-4 month project grew into a year-and-a-half collaboration with Royal Mail, resulting in ongoing work for the entire EPAM team.
