I redesigned CNET’s global navigation to make content easier to find while accounting for editorial, SEO, and revenue priorities. In the first month after launch, page views per session rose 32%.
Overview
CNET’s navigation had grown around commerce priorities, making it harder for readers to find other content. In usability testing, difficulty finding things was the most common complaint.
The problem
Subcategories had anywhere from zero to 17 links, with little consistency between them. Readers had to work out the structure again each time they opened a different section.
Readers’ difficulty finding content also limited engagement and traffic to commercially important pages. I set three goals for the redesign: improve findability, follow SEO best practice, and help readers reach high-value content.
My role
I owned the redesign, working with UX research, SEO, and engineering. I translated the research into a new structure, designed and prototyped the interactions, and worked with stakeholders to decide what belonged in the menu.
Research
A 30-person card sort helped us understand how readers grouped CNET’s content. We then tested the navigation in 12 unmoderated, 30-minute sessions across desktop and mobile. Participants were aged 32–62, with an even gender split.
Design
I created a template with 12 links across three labeled columns, space for two high-revenue articles, and a trending section. It gave readers a more consistent layout and gave editorial and engineering a shared pattern to maintain. On mobile, the navigation collapses into dropdowns to reduce the number of taps.
Before wireframing, I met with our SEO lead. That conversation shaped three parts of the design.
Use relevant search terms
We named categories and links with terms that ranked for the content we wanted people to find.
Put priority topics first
We ordered top-level topics from most to least important as part of the SEO hierarchy.
Leave room for different kinds of coverage
CNET’s topics vary in breadth and depth, so the template needed to stay consistent without assuming every section had identical content needs.
Tradeoffs
I was handed a list of every high-revenue page and asked to fit them all into the navigation. I pushed back: cramming them in would overwhelm readers and undercut findability, the exact problem we were solving. Defending a capped structure that left out some revenue pages was the hardest stakeholder conversation of the project, and the one I’m most glad I held.
Choosing the lighter version
The design team preferred a dark treatment, but research had shown that readers needed the navigation to stand out more clearly. I prototyped both versions and tested them with users.
Midnight
The bold, darker treatment the design team preferred for its contrast and visual impact.
Daylight
The lighter, green treatment that participants found clearer and easier to scan.
Results
The Daylight design launched across CNET’s global navigation. It introduced a consistent link structure and opened menus on hover for desktop users.
In the first month after launch, page views per session increased from 1.24 to 1.64, a 32% rise in site analytics. Before launch, the 12 usability sessions had helped validate the lighter treatment and link limit, with participants finding their assigned articles quickly.
The redesign also gave editorial and engineering one pattern to maintain across categories.
Reflection
Interactions rose at launch and leveled off a few months later. That left us with more questions to investigate, including whether a sticky navigation or further color changes would help.
Different teams had good reasons to feature their content, but the menu still had to be usable. Holding the link limit, and learning how structure and keywords support SEO, gave me practical experience prioritizing between reader needs and commercial goals.