Helping customers find the right option

The situation

The business offered a large, constantly changing range. Some customers arrived knowing exactly what they wanted. Others started with a broad need, an occasion, a budget or an outcome, and needed help to understand what was available and which option fitted. Over time the site had gathered menus, category pages, search, filters, campaign pages and recommendations, each added for a good reason, but never designed as one journey.

What was missing

The structure assumed customers already knew how the business organised its range. Labels that were familiar internally meant little to a first-time visitor. Customers with a broad need met a long list of categories before they knew enough to choose, filters that asked for knowledge they didn't have yet, and routes that looked as if they offered the same thing.

Adding more categories or filters looked like more control, but it just added decisions. What was missing was a sequence: a way to get from "I know roughly what I need" to "I understand which option is right for me".

My role

I reviewed how customers entered and moved through discovery: search, navigation, landing pages, listings and option pages. I looked at the language they used, where they changed direction and which decisions they were asked to make at each stage. That surfaced the broad needs customers started with, the distinctions that genuinely changed a decision, and the categories that reflected internal structure rather than customer understanding. I turned it into a model for discovery: the hierarchy, labels, decision points and the information each one needed.

What got written down

The model was defined clearly enough that new options could be placed against it, instead of each one adding another category.

What changed

Customers got a clearer route from an uncertain starting need to a smaller, more relevant set of options, without having to learn the business's internal structure first. Navigation, page content, search and filtering became more consistent, and important distinctions appeared at the point they were useful.

For the business, growth no longer had to mean more categories and routes. Future additions could be assessed against a shared model of customer intent and decision-making.

The same instinct, that structure should follow customer language rather than internal classification, runs through Search and information architecture too. It's what I now call Context Design.