Improving information architecture and menu clarity to drive product page conversions

Improving B2B user journeys through smarter navigation and behavioral insights

Context & Challenge

Compra Direta Empresas (CDE) is Whirlpool’s B2B e-commerce platform, where corporate customers purchase appliances using a CNPJ. As the catalog expanded, the existing navigation structure became cluttered and misaligned with user expectations. CRO analysis and behavioral data revealed high menu abandonment rates, difficulty locating product categories, and friction in the user journey — especially on mobile.

The challenge was to redesign the top navigation menu to reduce cognitive load, improve clarity, and streamline product discovery. The new structure needed to reflect how users think, scale with future categories, and support business goals like increased PDP conversions — all while maintaining alignment across product, design, and marketing teams.

My Role & Collaboration

As the Product Designer, I led the research and ideation phases in collaboration with the design, product, and CRO teams — with a strong focus on UX research and information architecture:

Conducted flow and behavior analysis using Hotjar and Google Analytics
Designed and tested mid-fidelity prototypes for both desktop and mobile
Led guerrilla usability testing with 5 real B2B users to gather qualitative feedback

Pain Points & Opportunities

Our initial research—supported by Hotjar recordings, Google Analytics, and internal feedback—highlighted several key friction points in the navigation experience:

Users were overwhelmed by the volume and arrangement of categories, often abandoning the menu without reaching a product page.
The menu structure lacked alignment with user mental models, especially for B2B buyers with clear, task-driven goals.
Mobile navigation was inconsistent, with nested categories that increased interaction cost and made it harder to complete tasks on smaller screens.
Internally, there was a misalignment between business logic and user logic, resulting in category groupings that didn’t reflect actual buyer behavior.

These pain points represented clear opportunities:

To simplify and reorganize the navigation based on how users search and make decisions.
To increase discoverability of products and reduce drop-offs in the browsing stage.
To standardize the experience across desktop and mobile, creating a scalable and consistent navigation system.
To leverage behavioral insights and align cross-functional teams around a shared strategy for information architecture.

Hypotheses

From our research and user observations, we formulated key hypotheses to guide design decisions and testing:

If we restructure the menu categories based on user behavior (e.g., function-based labels like “For Cooling” or “For Cooking”), users will find what they’re looking for faster, reducing friction in the journey.
If we reduce the number of visible categories and support them with visual aids (icons), the menu will become more intuitive, improving task success rates and overall satisfaction.
If we unify the navigation across desktop and mobile, we will reduce the cognitive load and navigation time, especially for mobile-first users.
If we align category structure with the user's mental model, we will increase clicks to product detail pages (PDPs), positively impacting conversion and revenue.

Immersion

Analytics

01/01 - 05/31/2021

Hotjar

Hotjar Insights:

Menu Abandonment : A significant number of users opened the header menu but exited without selecting any category, especially on mobile. This behavior indicated choice overload and unclear categorization — users couldn't quickly find what they needed and often gave up or used the search bar instead.
Excessive Hovering and Looping Behavior: In desktop recordings, we noticed hover-loop patterns, where users repeatedly moved their cursor across multiple categories without clicking. This suggested uncertainty in labeling and lack of immediate clarity on what each section contained.
Unbalanced Attention: Heatmaps showed concentration of clicks on a few well-known product categories, while other categories received minimal engagement. This revealed both information hierarchy issues and potentially low visibility or confusing nomenclature for lesser-known items.
Scroll Fatigue on Mobile: On mobile devices, the nested structure of categories forced users to scroll and tap multiple times to reach specific product pages. Many users abandoned the menu halfway through or resorted to backtracking — highlighting a need for shallower, more direct paths.
Low Engagement With Promotional CTAs in Navigation: Promotional banners or product highlight links embedded in the navigation received very low interaction, suggesting that users in this context were task-oriented, not browsing. The navigation needed to prioritize efficiency over promotion.

Desk Research

Before diving into ideation, we conducted a desk research phase to better understand market expectations, e-commerce best practices, and how other B2B and retail platforms organize and label their product categories.

This foundational research allowed us to identify common patterns, uncover gaps in our current approach, and align our strategy with both user behavior trends and business goals.

Areas Explored:

E-commerce Navigation Best Practices

We studied platforms like Amazon Business, Leroy Merlin Empresas, and Mercado Livre Empresas to analyze how they:
- Group product categories for corporate buyers
- Use visual hierarchies (e.g., mega menus, collapsible sections, icons)
- Balance promotional content with task-focused navigation
UX Guidelines & Heuristics

We referenced established usability principles (Nielsen Norman Group, Baymard Institute) to validate patterns such as:
- Limiting options per menu level to reduce cognitive load
- Using familiar labels and clear visual distinctions
- Ensuring consistency across devices and entry points
Whirlpool’s Own Product Strategy

We reviewed internal documentation, brand architecture, and product families to understand how Whirlpool structures and sells appliances — especially differences between B2C and B2B. This helped ensure that the new navigation would:
- Support business priorities
- Be scalable across multiple product lines
- Avoid internal misalignment between catalog and navigation logic

Ideation

Guerrilla Usability Testing

To validate our hypotheses and refine the navigation structure, we conducted guerrilla usability testing with real B2B users. The goal was to quickly gather qualitative insights on comprehension, discoverability, and navigation flow, without requiring long cycles of formal testing.

Testing Setup

Participants: 5 users from Whirlpool’s B2B customer base (business owners or purchasing agents using Compra Direta Empresas)
Method: Remote and in-person task-based sessions with mid-fidelity desktop and mobile prototypes
Tasks:
- Find a specific product (e.g., a cooktop or air conditioner)
- Navigate to a category page and compare options
- Locate complementary items (e.g., accessories or parts)
- Time per session: ~20 minutes

Key Findings
- Improved Label Comprehension

Functional labels like “For Cooling” or “For Cooking” were easier to understand and more aligned with users’ intentions.

“I didn’t even have to think twice — I just clicked ‘For Cooling’ and there it was.” (Procurement manager, food industry)

- Faster Navigation and Fewer Clicks

Users completed tasks more quickly, with fewer back-and-forth movements compared to the previous menu.

“Before I had to open multiple menus to find what I wanted. Now it’s much more direct.” (Small business owner, retail sector)

- Icon Use Increased Recognition

The use of small, descriptive icons next to each category made scanning the menu easier, especially on mobile.

“The icons really help me know what I’m looking at without reading everything.”(Facilities coordinator, service company)

- Minor Confusion Between Overlapping Labels

Some confusion arose with adjacent categories like “For Cooking” vs. “Kitchen Essentials.”

“I wasn’t sure if pans would be in ‘For Cooking’ or something else... maybe a bit of overlap here.”(Operations analyst, hospitality sector)

Refining and testing the prototype

After collecting valuable qualitative insights from our guerrilla tests, we moved into a more structured validation phase using the remote testing platform Testa Isso. The goal was to evaluate how the redesigned menu performed in an unmoderated environment, simulating a realistic user experience.
This step allowed us to gather broader feedback from B2B users interacting naturally with both desktop and mobile prototypes — validating comprehension, efficiency, and navigation clarity.

User Scenario Provided
“You work for a company and need to purchase home appliances using your company’s CNPJ. You’ve accessed the Compra Direta Empresas website to search for the right products. Below are a few tasks for you to complete using the platform’s main navigation menu.”

Tasks Presented to Users

Navigate to the cooling products category and find a suitable refrigerator.
Locate a complementary item, such as a water filter or appliance accessory.
Explore the full list of categories and describe how the navigation feels organized.
(Mobile) Use only your thumb to navigate between menu sections and comment on usability.

Key Observations

100% task completion rate with smooth navigation to product detail pages (PDPs).
Most users quickly understood the function-based category labels, such as “For Cooling” or “For Cooking.”
The collapsible structure on mobile was well received, though some suggested larger tap areas for more precise interaction.
On desktop, the use of icons helped reinforce clarity without distraction, especially for experienced e-commerce users.
A few users noted slight confusion between similar sections like “Essentials” and “Accessories”, prompting us to refine naming and add hover tooltips.

Final Prototype

Results

After the redesign and prototype validation, the new header navigation showed strong potential for improving the overall product browsing experience — especially for B2B users with task-oriented behaviors.

+10% projected increase in click-throughs to PDPs, based on benchmark comparison and user testing performance
32% reduction in average navigation time from homepage to category or product detail
100% task success rate during the final round of usability testing
Positive sentiment from participants regarding clarity, simplicity, and logical grouping of categories
Improved mobile experience, with fewer misclicks and reduced scrolling thanks to functional grouping and collapsible structure

Next Steps

Continue mobile-first iteration: Further enhance the mobile experience by refining tap areas, collapsible behaviors, and thumb-reach zones.
Document for scalability: Finalize handoff documentation including navigation logic and interaction specs for future team use.

Graziele Pires