Enterprise SaaSUser ResearchInformation ArchitectureDesign Systems

SaaS Navigation Redesign: Cuts Clicks, Boosts Efficiency by 40%

Users needed 3+ clicks to reach essential pages. Through rigorous IA research with 3,500+ auction houses, we rebuilt the navigation from the ground up — reducing click depth by 40% and surfacing hidden features that users didn't know existed.

Role

Product Designer

Team

PM · Engineering · CS

Duration

Mar – Jun 2023

Tools

Figma · Miro

40%Click Rate Reduction

|3,500+Auction Houses

|100+Pages Audited

|4moResearch to Delivery

Context

A navigation built for the system, not the user

The Platform

ATG's back-office SaaS for 3,500+ auction houses

Covers auctions, bidders, inventory, and financials

Roadmap: exclusive back-office across all ATG marketplaces

Serves North America and UK markets

The Problem

3+ clicks required to reach essential pages

100+ page audit revealed hidden, unused features

Users didn't know key functionality existed

Navigation organized around system logic, not workflow

The Insight

Google Analytics + workshops told the same story

Most-viewed pages were buried deepest in nav

Auctioneers' mental models ≠ system architecture

Naming conventions created confusion across verticals

Google Analytics — Most Viewed Pages · March 2023

These were the hardest pages to reach — buried 3+ clicks deep

Create/Edit Customer

27,072 views

All Invoices

14,374 views

Export Monitor

11,821 views

Permanent Sellers

1,557 views

All Payments

1,266 views

Annotated Old Navigation

Design Question

"How can we create a SaaS navigation that seamlessly aligns with our users' mental models — ensuring it is not only effortlessly simplified but becomes an intuitive extension of their workflow?"

Research & Validation

Three layers of research validation

Before designing a single pixel, we needed to understand how auctioneers think — not just what they do.

Who we talked to

The Veteran

Returning Auctioneer · Tier 2 · Industrial & Commercial

Age

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Role

Owner-Operator, mid-size auction house

Bio

Gary has run his auction house for 22 years. He took over the software after his business partner retired and learned it by doing — no manual, no training. He logs in every day to pull invoices, manage consignors, and run reports. He doesn't explore. He executes.

"I know where everything is. Just don't move it on me."

What this means for design

The nav must feel familiar on day one. Every label change needs a rationale Gary can feel, not just read about in a changelog.

Goals

Get in, do the job, get out

Run end-of-day reports without hunting

Trust the system not to break his routine

Frustrations

Features move between updates with no warning

New UI patterns feel designed for 'tech people'

Help docs assume he knows the terminology

Personality

Tech-avoidantTech-savvy

Routine-drivenExploratory

Resistant to changeOpen to change

Classic version userSmall–medium teamIndustrial & CommercialWears multiple hats

The Adopter

New Auctioneer · All Verticals · North America & Europe

Age

Location

Toronto, Canada

Role

Operations Manager, growing auction house

Bio

Priya joined a regional auction house 8 months ago, moving from retail operations. She's digitally comfortable but not an expert in auction-specific software. She learns by clicking around, reading tooltips, and calling support when she gets stuck. She wants the software to feel like a tool, not a puzzle.

"I'm willing to learn — just make it obvious where to start."

What this means for design

Clear information hierarchy and forgiving exploration patterns — she should be able to find anything without knowing what it's called.

Goals

Onboard without reading a manual

Discover features without fear of breaking things

Build confidence fast so she stops calling support

Frustrations

No clear starting point when she logs in

Navigation labels that assume auction-house vocabulary

Features she needs buried under categories that don't make sense to her

Personality

Tech-avoidantTech-savvy

Routine-drivenExploratory

Resistant to changeOpen to change

All ATG verticalsVarying skill levelsNorth America & EuropeReady for 2.0

Research process

Participants

PMs, Designers, UX Researchers, Client Success

Goal

Discover how internal teams categorize information and surface naming confusion before going external.

Key learnings

Teams naturally grouped items under "Accounting", "Customers", and "Auctions" — not how the old nav was structured

"Builder" had no consistent understanding across departments

The mismatch between how teams talk about features vs. how they're labeled became our core design tension

Card Sort Results

What we heard — across all three rounds

"Everyone called it 'Customers' — the nav called it something else entirely."

Language mismatch across 3 research rounds

"Horizontal just felt faster. Auctioneers don't browse — they hunt."

Consistent finding across usability sessions

"7 nav categories replaced 14. Same features, half the cognitive load."

IA outcome from card sort synthesis

Design Decisions

Every decision backed by research

Nothing in the final design was arbitrary. Each call traces back to something a user said, a pattern from the data, or a clear trade-off we made consciously.

Horizontal nav over vertical

Usability testing showed auctioneers' scan patterns favored horizontal — aligning with how they mentally separate company-level settings from event-level actions.

Matched auctioneer workflow

7 research-validated IA groups

Replaced 14 system-centric nav items with 7 groups from card sort data: Auctions, Accounting, Customers, Integrations, System Setup, Auction House Info, and Help.

1-click access to all key pages

Context-aware Create button

Moved 'Create' from a fixed global position to an auction-aware placement — surfacing only relevant options based on where the user is.

Reduced errors on creation flows

Compact + expanded nav states

Power users wanted icons only. New auctioneers needed labels. We built both as a user-toggled preference rather than a single fixed layout.

Served both expert and novice users

Final Navigation Design — Annotated

Impact

Efficiency gains that auctioneers felt immediately

40%

Click Rate Reduction

3,500+

Auction Houses Served

100+

Pages Audited & Mapped

Research Rounds Run

40% Click Reduction

Key pages like 'Edit/Add Customer', 'All Invoices', and 'Export Monitor' went from 3+ clicks to direct access. Auctioneers spent less time navigating and more time running auctions.

Measured across most-visited pages

Hidden Features Surfaced

The audit uncovered features users didn't know existed. The new IA brought customer editing and invoice management out of buried menus and into the primary nav flow.

Outcome of 100+ page audit

Enhanced Seller Satisfaction

Through the research process, sellers expressed a newfound sense of value — their mental models were finally reflected in the product. Engagement and loyalty in the auctioneer community increased.

Qualitative signal from research sessions

Key Takeaway

"Understanding users' mental models through empathy-driven research is crucial — auctioneers perceive the auction experience differently from our assumptions, favoring an organic approach over predefined system stages."

Reflection

What this project taught me

01Mental Models

Assumptions are the enemy of good IA

The moment we stopped mapping the nav to how the software worked and started mapping it to how auctioneers work, everything clicked.

02Visual Hierarchy

Design should guide, not explain

If a user needs a tooltip to know where they are, the design has already failed.

03Cross-functional Work

The best design decisions happen in the room, not after it

The nav we shipped wasn't just my design — it was a shared conclusion, and that's what makes something stick after handoff.

Let's Talk

Interested in this work?

I'd love to walk you through the full case study in a conversation. Reach out and I'll get back to you shortly.

🔒NDA work available on request

⚡Typically respond within 24 hours

☕Happy to jump on a quick call

Let's Talk

Interested In this work?

I'd love to walk you through the full case study in a conversation. Reach out and I'll get back to you shortly.

🔒NDA work available on request

⚡Typically respond within 24 hours

☕Happy to jump on a quick call

Let's Talk

Interested in this work?

I'd love to walk you through the full case study in a conversation. Reach out and I'll get back to you shortly.

🔒NDA work available on request

⚡Typically respond within 24 hours

☕Happy to jump on a quick call