Redesigning Global Navigation to Improve Discoverability Across Home Depot Canada’s Digital Ecosystem
DESKTOP + TABLET + MOBILE
Overview
Home Depot Canada’s legacy global navigation had become increasingly complex as product assortment, merchandising needs, and customer behaviours evolved. The navigation experience created friction across browse, search, and category discovery, particularly on mobile.
Working alongside UX, strategy, business analysts, and IT partners, I led the visual and interaction design direction for a complete redesign of the global header, footer, shop by department navigation, and search experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile web.
The redesign unified browse and search experiences, modernised mobile navigation, introduced scalable category architecture, and enabled new merchandising capabilities that better supported both customer discovery and business growth.
Project Scope
Global header redesign
Global footer redesign
Shop by Department navigation overhaul
Search bar and interaction redesign
PLP (Product Listing Page) and SRP (Search Results Page) alignment
Desktop, tablet, and mobile web experiences
My Account sign-in and navigation
My Role
UX/UI Designer (Creative & Interaction Design Lead)
Leading visual and interaction design direction across the navigation ecosystem
Designing new scalable navigation components and patterns
Translating IA strategy and research insights into user-centered solutions
Partnering closely with UX, strategy, and IT teams throughout discovery and iteration
Presenting design direction and concepts to leadership stakeholders
The Challenge
As Home Depot Canada’s online presence became more noticeable, its legacy navigation system was no longer aligned with the scale and complexity of its growth. Customers faced challenges in efficiently discovering products, and the existing architecture limited the business’s ability to support merchandising initiatives and future expansion.
Key challenges
Limited product discoverability through department browsing
Broken navigation patterns between browse and search experiences
Navigation structures that lacked scalability for category growth
Mobile navigation patterns that introduced cognitive overload with illogical patterns and ultimately reduced usability
Inconsistent navigation experiences across product listing and search results journeys
This redesign required balancing customer usability with business merchandising priorities while modernizing the platform’s navigation architecture.
Defining Success
Business Goals
Improve category discoverability and funnel entry points
Enable flexible merchandising within navigation
Standardize navigation across digital experiences
Support future product and category expansion
User Goals
Simplify browsing across departments
Improve product findability
Reduce cognitive load, particularly on mobile
Create consistent navigation patterns across browse and search journeys
Discovery & Insight Development
Icon Study
Usability testing revealed that customers relied more heavily on clear textual hierarchy and predictable category groupings rather than iconography when browsing departments. Decorative icons often created visual noise and reduced scannability.
Workshop & Ideation
The team conducted collaborative ideation and research activities to identify key usability challenges and align on experience goals. This included Crazy Eights workshops, rapid design iteration sessions, and prioritization voting exercises across cross-functional partners.
User Testing
User testing and icon comprehension studies played a critical role in informing design decisions.
Key Insight
This insight directly influenced the decision to remove icons from the navigation and prioritize a simplified, text-driven hierarchy.
Navigation Strategy & Information Architecture
A major focus of the redesign was restructuring the Shop by Department navigation to support both customer mental models and business merchandising needs.
This required:
Reorganizing L1, L2, and L3 category hierarchies
Creating scalable taxonomy patterns to support future assortment growth
Designing flexible merchandising zones within navigation to highlight promotions and featured products
Aligning browse pathways with search result experiences to create a cohesive discovery ecosystem
Visual & Interaction Design Direction
I led the creative direction for the navigation redesign, translating research insights and IA strategy into a modern, scalable navigation experience.
Key design contributions
Designing new navigation components and interaction states
Establishing visual hierarchy standards for large-scale department menus
Removing iconography to improve usability and reduce visual noise
Creating consistent navigation behaviours across breakpoints
Aligning global navigation patterns with PLP and SRP redesign efforts
Redesigning search bar interactions to improve discoverability and consistency
Before
Improving Mobile Navigation
Mobile navigation presented unique challenges due to screen size constraints and the current layered navigation design. The redesign focused on simplifying department browsing by creating a clear distinction between L1, L2, and L3 categories while improving usability and findability.
Design improvements
Streamlined department browsing structures by creating a step-by-step navigation system
Improved progressive disclosure patterns to reduce cognitive load
Enhanced touch ergonomics and tap targets for accessibility
Removed layered navigation complexity
Increased scalability for future category expansion
Removed iconography to reduce visual noise and findability
Mobile Considerations
Designing alternative header for PRO
Store hours
French translation
Footer Redesign Opportunities
Reorganizing footer taxonomy and UI styles to improve scannability
Consolidating and relabelling link groupings to improve scannability and clearer separation between shopping, support, and corporate content.
Introducing an accessibility badge to enforce trust and visibly communicate commitment to AA accessibility standards.
Improve visual hierarchy and spacing to improve readability and a more natural flow of information.
Scalability & Design System Contribution
The redesign introduced reusable navigation components that aligned with the broader design system and supported long-term platform consistency.
This work helped:
Standardize navigation behaviours across the site
Improve maintainability for engineering teams
Support future merchandising and category growth
Accessibility & Compliance
Accessibility was a critical requirement throughout the project as the platform worked toward AODA compliance and WCAG AA standards.
Navigation components were designed with accessibility considerations including:
Improved colour contrast and readability
Keyboard navigation support
Screen reader compatibility
Clear focus and interaction states
Improved text hierarchy and structure
Accessibility improvements helped ensure the navigation experience was inclusive and usable across diverse customer needs.
Validation & Outcomes
Multiple rounds of usability testing confirmed improved category discoverability and navigation clarity across desktop and mobile.
Following launch, the redesigned navigation:
Unified browse and search discovery patterns
Improved consistency across PLP and SRP experiences
Enabled flexible merchandising within navigation
Established a scalable navigation framework for future platform growth
Cross-Functional Partnership
This project required close collaboration between UX, strategy, business, and engineering stakeholders.
I played a key role in:
Translating research insights into visual solutions
Facilitating iterative design reviews
Presenting navigation concepts and visual direction to leadership
Helping align usability goals with merchandising priorities
Reflection & Learnings
This project reinforced the importance of treating navigation as a strategic platform system rather than a UI surface. Balancing business merchandising goals with user simplicity required strong cross-functional alignment and iterative validation.
If revisiting the project today, I would explore deeper personalization opportunities within navigation while maintaining clarity and performance.