B2C | Growth
Increasing Trust and Conversions with a Website Navigation Redesign
Improving user findability and building trust through a clear and conversion-optimized navigation structure
Trust
increased in the company
+26%
conversions vs previous version
Simplified
information architecture
The redesigned navigation
B2C | Growth
Increasing Trust and Conversions with a Website Navigation Redesign
Improving user findability and building trust through a clear and conversion-optimized navigation structure
Trust
increased in the company
+26%
conversions vs previous version
Simplified
information architecture
The redesigned navigation
B2C | Growth
Increasing Trust and Conversions with a Website Navigation Redesign
Improving user findability and building trust through a clear and conversion-optimized navigation structure
Trust
increased in the company
+26%
conversions vs previous version
Simplified
information architecture
The redesigned navigation
Product
B2C Website
Industry
Energy & Greentech
Timeline
H1 2024
My role
Product Design, UXR, Conversions
Tools
Figma, Miro, Hotjar, VWO, Datadog
Challenge
Zolar's website navigation was cluttered and inconsistent. New visitors struggled to navigate confidently and to find key pages, while labels caused confusion.
Approach
Through analytics, user tests, and workshops with product, marketing and business stakeholders, I mapped user goals to content and restructured the information architecture, designing a new simplified version.
Key Insight
Trust starts with clarity. Users wanted to quickly understand who zolar is before engaging. Making a key page like the “About Us” more visible and renaming unclear CTAs significantly improved both user confidence and conversions.
Product
B2C Website
Industry
Energy & Greentech
Timeline
H1 2024
My role
Product Design, UXR, Conversions
Tools
Figma, Miro, Hotjar, VWO, Datadog
Challenge
Zolar's website navigation was cluttered and inconsistent. New visitors struggled to navigate confidently and to find key pages, while labels caused confusion.
Approach
Through analytics, user tests, and workshops with product, marketing and business stakeholders, I mapped user goals to content and restructured the information architecture, designing a new simplified version.
Key Insight
Trust starts with clarity. Users wanted to quickly understand who zolar is before engaging. Making a key page like the “About Us” more visible and renaming unclear CTAs significantly improved both user confidence and conversions.
Product
B2C Website
Industry
Energy & Greentech
Timeline
H1 2024
My role
Product Design, UXR, Conversions
Tools
Figma, Miro, Hotjar, VWO, Datadog
Challenge
Zolar's website navigation was cluttered and inconsistent. New visitors struggled to navigate confidently and to find key pages, while labels caused confusion.
Approach
Through analytics, user tests, and workshops with product, marketing and business stakeholders, I mapped user goals to content and restructured the information architecture, designing a new simplified version.
Key Insight
Trust starts with clarity. Users wanted to quickly understand who zolar is before engaging. Making a key page like the “About Us” more visible and renaming unclear CTAs significantly improved both user confidence and conversions.
Process
Understanding the Problem & User Needs
Upon my initial months at zolar, I had a fresh perspective, one that matched how many new users felt when they first visited the website. The navigation seemed too complex. Right away, I noticed it was hard to find simple information, especially the About Us page, a place where users often look to answer “Who are you?” and “Can I trust you?”.
Curious about my own experience, I dug deeper with the Product Manager. The data surprised us: the About Us was among the least clicked pages on the website, even though we had evidence from the market research team that trust mattered even more than price to our users.
To get a clearer picture, I organized moderated usability tests with real users. In parallel I've analysed hotjar recordings, to also get the unmoderated and unbiased view of things.
Key Findings:
People struggled to find basic information about who zolar was and why they could trust the company.
About Us was hidden under the vague label Übersicht and not intuitively clickable.
1.000 € sichern was confusing. People thought it was a discount, not a referral program.
Stakeholders underestimated the importance of the About Us page, assuming low clicks meant low interest.
Homepage before the redesign
Navigation expanded before the redesign
Process
Understanding the Problem & User Needs
Upon my initial months at zolar, I had a fresh perspective, one that matched how many new users felt when they first visited the website. The navigation seemed too complex. Right away, I noticed it was hard to find simple information, especially the About Us page, a place where users often look to answer “Who are you?” and “Can I trust you?”.
Curious about my own experience, I dug deeper with the Product Manager. The data surprised us: the About Us was among the least clicked pages on the website, even though we had evidence from the market research team that trust mattered even more than price to our users.
To get a clearer picture, I organized moderated usability tests with real users. In parallel I've analysed hotjar recordings, to also get the unmoderated and unbiased view of things.
Key Findings:
People struggled to find basic information about who zolar was and why they could trust the company.
About Us was hidden under the vague label Übersicht and not intuitively clickable.
1.000 € sichern was confusing. People thought it was a discount, not a referral program.
Stakeholders underestimated the importance of the About Us page, assuming low clicks meant low interest.
Homepage before the redesign
Navigation expanded before the redesign
Process
Understanding the Problem & User Needs
Upon my initial months at zolar, I had a fresh perspective, one that matched how many new users felt when they first visited the website. The navigation seemed too complex. Right away, I noticed it was hard to find simple information, especially the About Us page, a place where users often look to answer “Who are you?” and “Can I trust you?”.
Curious about my own experience, I dug deeper with the Product Manager. The data surprised us: the About Us was among the least clicked pages on the website, even though we had evidence from the market research team that trust mattered even more than price to our users.
To get a clearer picture, I organized moderated usability tests with real users. In parallel I've analysed hotjar recordings, to also get the unmoderated and unbiased view of things.
Key Findings:
People struggled to find basic information about who zolar was and why they could trust the company.
About Us was hidden under the vague label Übersicht and not intuitively clickable.
1.000 € sichern was confusing. People thought it was a discount, not a referral program.
Stakeholders underestimated the importance of the About Us page, assuming low clicks meant low interest.
Homepage before the redesign
Navigation expanded before the redesign
Competitor's Website Patterns
Key patterns stood out from auditing eight leading competitors’ websites:
Ratgeber was a go-to term for finding guidance or advice.
About Us page was present in most of the top menu navigations.
Referral programs were clearly labeled.
Only zolar used a hamburger menu on desktop.
Companies had a separate menu item for partners.
Competitor Benchmark table
Competitor's Website Patterns
Key patterns stood out from auditing eight leading competitors’ websites:
Ratgeber was a go-to term for finding guidance or advice.
About Us page was present in most of the top menu navigations.
Referral programs were clearly labeled.
Only zolar used a hamburger menu on desktop.
Companies had a separate menu item for partners.
Competitor Benchmark table
Competitor's Website Patterns
Key patterns stood out from auditing eight leading competitors’ websites:
Ratgeber was a go-to term for finding guidance or advice.
About Us page was present in most of the top menu navigations.
Referral programs were clearly labeled.
Only zolar used a hamburger menu on desktop.
Companies had a separate menu item for partners.
Competitor Benchmark table
Collaborative Redesign
I mapped users’ top questions and checked how our current content answered them.
With card sorting and tree testing exercises with users, I understood what they expect under each menu item.
Then, I led a cross-functional workshop with Product, SEO, Content, and Marketing teams. A challenging topic was the referral label: Prämie sichern had won an A/B test in the past, but caused confusion. After reviewing drop-off data, we aligned on a clearer label: Freunde empfehlen.
What changed:
Labels that matched user expectations.
Clearer top menu items and a sub-navigation logically organised.
Structure built around questions that people would naturally ask.
The outcome: a simpler, user-aligned navigation, shaped collaboratively across teams.
Workshop output: our new, user-focused navigation structure
Collaborative Redesign
I mapped users’ top questions and checked how our current content answered them.
With card sorting and tree testing exercises with users, I understood what they expect under each menu item.
Then, I led a cross-functional workshop with Product, SEO, Content, and Marketing teams. A challenging topic was the referral label: Prämie sichern had won an A/B test in the past, but caused confusion. After reviewing drop-off data, we aligned on a clearer label: Freunde empfehlen.
What changed:
Labels that matched user expectations.
Clearer top menu items and a sub-navigation logically organised.
Structure built around questions that people would naturally ask.
The outcome: a simpler, user-aligned navigation, shaped collaboratively across teams.
Workshop output: our new, user-focused navigation structure
Collaborative Redesign
I mapped users’ top questions and checked how our current content answered them.
With card sorting and tree testing exercises with users, I understood what they expect under each menu item.
Then, I led a cross-functional workshop with Product, SEO, Content, and Marketing teams. A challenging topic was the referral label: Prämie sichern had won an A/B test in the past, but caused confusion. After reviewing drop-off data, we aligned on a clearer label: Freunde empfehlen.
What changed:
Labels that matched user expectations.
Clearer top menu items and a sub-navigation logically organised.
Structure built around questions that people would naturally ask.
The outcome: a simpler, user-aligned navigation, shaped collaboratively across teams.
Workshop output: our new, user-focused navigation structure
Prototyping & Decision Making: Balancing Simplicity and Usability
I tested two navigation layouts: full-width and content-width. The full-width version felt overwhelming and required more content than needed, making the experience unnecessarily complex.
Full-width navigation variant: visually rich, but ultimately too complex for our needs
After alignment with stakeholders, we chose the content-width layout. It was cleaner, easier to scan, and helped users focus on key actions.
Final navigation implementation
Prototyping & Decision Making: Balancing Simplicity and Usability
I tested two navigation layouts: full-width and content-width. The full-width version felt overwhelming and required more content than needed, making the experience unnecessarily complex.
Full-width navigation variant: visually rich, but ultimately too complex for our needs
After alignment with stakeholders, we chose the content-width layout. It was cleaner, easier to scan, and helped users focus on key actions.
Final navigation implementation
Prototyping & Decision Making: Balancing Simplicity and Usability
I tested two navigation layouts: full-width and content-width. The full-width version felt overwhelming and required more content than needed, making the experience unnecessarily complex.
Full-width navigation variant: visually rich, but ultimately too complex for our needs
After alignment with stakeholders, we chose the content-width layout. It was cleaner, easier to scan, and helped users focus on key actions.
Final navigation implementation
Results
An A/B test with 18,320 visitors showed the new navigation increased 26,04% more conversions conversions to zolar’s wizard, indicating higher user confidence to proceed.
A/B test results
The Über uns (About Us) page became the 4th most clicked page of zolar's website.
Analytics dashboard of the most visited pages
Results
An A/B test with 18,320 visitors showed the new navigation increased 26,04% more conversions conversions to zolar’s wizard, indicating higher user confidence to proceed.
A/B test results
The Über uns (About Us) page became the 4th most clicked page of zolar's website.
Analytics dashboard of the most visited pages
Results
An A/B test with 18,320 visitors showed the new navigation increased 26,04% more conversions conversions to zolar’s wizard, indicating higher user confidence to proceed.
A/B test results
The Über uns (About Us) page became the 4th most clicked page of zolar's website.
Analytics dashboard of the most visited pages
Outcome
The redesign focused on trust and clarity, proven by research as the top driver for users.
The outcome of building trust and clarity directly created business impact.
Key information became easier to find.
Higher engagement on key pages.
Cross-team alignment improved, uniting Product, Marketing, and Tech around user needs,
Outcome
The redesign focused on trust and clarity, proven by research as the top driver for users.
The outcome of building trust and clarity directly created business impact.
Key information became easier to find.
Higher engagement on key pages.
Cross-team alignment improved, uniting Product, Marketing, and Tech around user needs,
Outcome
The redesign focused on trust and clarity, proven by research as the top driver for users.
The outcome of building trust and clarity directly created business impact.
Key information became easier to find.
Higher engagement on key pages.
Cross-team alignment improved, uniting Product, Marketing, and Tech around user needs,
Learnings
Small changes, big impact: even simple tweaks, like renaming a menu item can transform the experience.
Let data and users lead, not assumptions: low clicks don’t always mean low interest.
User needs over internal habits: real user behavior should guide design decisions.
Collaboration is key: stakeholder involvement secures alignment and smoother processes.
Test early, test often: quick, iterative testing helped us catch issues before they became costly.
Continuous improvement: there’s always more to learn. Ongoing evaluation and iteration are vital.
Learnings
Small changes, big impact: even simple tweaks, like renaming a menu item can transform the experience.
Let data and users lead, not assumptions: low clicks don’t always mean low interest.
User needs over internal habits: real user behavior should guide design decisions.
Collaboration is key: stakeholder involvement secures alignment and smoother processes.
Test early, test often: quick, iterative testing helped us catch issues before they became costly.
Continuous improvement: there’s always more to learn. Ongoing evaluation and iteration are vital.
Learnings
Small changes, big impact: even simple tweaks, like renaming a menu item can transform the experience.
Let data and users lead, not assumptions: low clicks don’t always mean low interest.
User needs over internal habits: real user behavior should guide design decisions.
Collaboration is key: stakeholder involvement secures alignment and smoother processes.
Test early, test often: quick, iterative testing helped us catch issues before they became costly.
Continuous improvement: there’s always more to learn. Ongoing evaluation and iteration are vital.