Global Navigation Overhaul
Making room for TopCashback to grow, without disrupting familiar user journeys.
As TopCashback’s categories continued to evolve, the existing navigation had reached its limit. New categories could no longer be added at the top level without compromising usability and disrupting the UI.
What initially appeared to be a simple UI update became a rethink of how content was organised and how members discovered it.
1 of 3 UX/UI Designers · Desktop & mobile · 6 months
More categories, but no more room
The existing navigation was heavily focused on retailer categories and did not showcase the wider range of products and services available through TopCashback.
Adding more items would have increased clutter.
Moving familiar categories into a dropdown, however, risked disrupting established user behaviour.
The challenge was to create room for growth without reducing engagement with the categories members relied on.
The original category navigation
Before changing the interface, I needed to understand the structure
I conducted a full audit of the categories and their subcategories, identifying duplicates and outdated categories, mapping their relationships and defining a cleaner, more scalable structure.
These updates were documented and handed over to the relevant teams to ensure the categories remained accurate.
Behaviour shaped the approach.
Desktop v Mobile
Google Analytics showed that just over half of users accessed the site via mobile, while desktop users relied heavily on the navigation bar.
Clarity and efficiency were particularly important on desktop, but the structure also needed to work across mobile. I explored how other platforms organised large amounts of information without overwhelming users.
Bringing the categories together created space for more
I explored how categories could be consolidated into a structured mega menu. The design needed to make categories easy to scan, maintain a clear hierarchy and accommodate future additions.
Familiar categories, organised differently.
The final desktop solution introduced a mega menu-style dropdown. Members could access top-level categories or drill down into subcategories, reducing clutter in the main navigation bar.
On mobile, the same structure was adapted to preserve consistency in how content was organised.
The space gained had a purpose.
- Compare, Gift Cards and Refer & Earn were elevated to the top-level navigation, increasing their visibility.
- A flexible seasonal space could change throughout the year—for example, promoting Travel when summer bookings increased.
- Within the dropdown, retailer promotional placements created additional commercial opportunities. The design also included fallback states for regions where placements had not been sold or were not required.
I worked closely with the other designers, teams responsible for the categories and stakeholders to align the structure, promotional requirements and fallback behaviour.
The structure changed. Category engagement didn’t.
No drop-off in category engagement.
The updated navigation has been live for several years, with no drop-off in category engagement and no increase in customer service queries related to categories.
Traffic increased to TopCashback products.
Traffic increased to newly promoted product areas, while the flexible promotional placements created additional opportunities for retailer visibility and business revenue.
What I took from it
Auditing was key.
The most important work happened before the interface changed. Auditing and restructuring the categories made it possible to simplify the navigation and create room for growth.
Balance user needs with business objectives.
With millions of members familiar with the existing structure, the solution needed to balance change with familiarity. I made more of TopCashback discoverable without disrupting the journeys members already relied on.