Reimagining Navigation Across a Complex App Ecosystem

• Reimagined the Global Ribbon / shell navigation
• Designed a scalable web-based navigation framework
• Worked through multi-application information architecture, roles and permissions, system states, and design-system patterns
• Partnered with engineering on implementation-ready interaction behavior

MODERNIZATION: Updating the Legacy Ribbon Menu (made in Winforms) to a web-based menu, that permeates across all applications.

Legacy software had a ribbon menu that existed on top of all applications across the user's workflow. The task was modernize the menu, allowing for it to easily connect to the API of existing applications so that the end result menu would only be responsible for adding applications to the menu and setting permissions per user.

The open behavior of each application was also tracked to help track API connections necessary for the future.

Existing users on the sales floor were interviewed based on how they use the Legacy ribbon menu in the past and at present. Then feedback was given on the first iteration of the shell menu - a Horizontal Ribbon Menu was proposed. Here is the general structure of the user research board, recording their responses and otherwise.

After initial user feedback, a Vertical Ribbon Drop Menu, seemed to be a better fit, giving the users back screen space, which is greatly valued given the screen real estate of the different applications. This design was presented and approved, and presented to developers to figure out technical scope and architecture.

A vertical ribbon with a drop down menu with favorite icons (preserving functionality from legacy)

• Established a clearer shell/navigation direction for a complex internal product ecosystem
• Created reusable system patterns that could scale across applications