Mega Menu Concepts for Risk Management's website

Overview

A global risk intelligence and data analytics company was rolling out a new brand identity across its main site and five industry microsites, in the US, UK, and international markets. My team was brought in for a focused six-week engagement to translate that new brand into the site's highest-traffic, highest-stakes component: the mega menu and footer. I led UX design on two distinct concept directions, built on a site map and mid-fidelity wireframes an information architect had already validated with users, and delivered fully responsive desktop and mobile concepts for stakeholder review.

Information

Type

Concept project, self-directed capstone inspired by the City of San Diego Environmental Services Department (not a commissioned engagement)

Role

Lead UX Researcher & Designer (solo project) — discovery research, persona development, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, ethical & accessibility review

Industry

Government / Civic Technology, Public Sector Services

The PRoblem

The client had recently completed a major sitemap overhaul, consolidating dozens of scattered service pages into five clear industry groups: Business Services, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, and Law Enforcement & Public Safety. A research and IA team had already built and usability-tested mid-fidelity wireframes to confirm that the structure made sense to users. But a validated structure without a resolved visual language is only half the job. The company was rolling out a new global brand system, with updated color, typography, and iconography, none of which had yet been applied to the primary navigation. The mega menu is the one component every visitor touches, whether they land on the US homepage, the UK homepage, or any of the five industry microsites.

Hence, it carries an outsized share of both brand and usability risk. Nielsen Norman Group's research on mega menus notes that these patterns succeed or fail on information scent and standability. Get the density wrong, and users either feel overwhelmed by a wall of links or lose the "see everything at once" advantage that makes a mega menu worth the added complexity. If the new brand did not resolve cleanly within a component that holds five industries and dozens of nested links, it would undermine the credibility of the rebrand elsewhere on the site.

Role & Team

I worked alongside a Project Manager, who coordinated stakeholder reviews and timelines, and a Production Designer, who supported visual polish and asset export. As Lead UX Designer, I owned:

Translating the new brand guidelines, color, typography, iconography, and the logo into two distinct mega menu and footer concepts
Adapting the previously validated wireframes into responsive, concept-fidelity UI for both desktop and mobile
Holding both concepts to WCAG 2.1 AA contrast and interaction standards, including predictable exit points, adequate touch targets, and visible focus states
Presenting both concepts to stakeholders across the US, UK, and international teams for the final brand direction decision

Process & Research

Because the IA had already tested the wireframe structure, I focused on ensuring that five industries and dozens of solutions remained navigable, on-brand, and easy to scan.

Reviewing the wireframes against the new brand kit showed that the main question was the interaction pattern, not the structure. With five industries and ten to fifteen sublinks each, the challenge was balancing density with clarity. I developed two parallel directions for stakeholders to compare:

Concept A uses an embedded in-page panel that pushes content down, keeps all columns visible, and pairs links with two relevant content cards.
Concept B uses a compact overlay: a rounded, elevated card over a dimmed page, featuring one content card, uppercase micro type, and tighter spacing.

I applied the same trade-off to mobile. Concept A uses a flat, sentence-case list for faster scanning and higher density. Concept B uses a rounded card with industry icons that echo the logo, trading some density for stronger visual wayfinding. The goal was to present two credible choices: brief completeness versus lighter, guided browsing.

Concept A

Concept B

The Solution

This concept-stage engagement was designed to support a stakeholder decision, not produce live A/B test metrics. In six weeks, the team delivered two fully designed desktop and mobile concepts, applied consistently across three regional homepages and five industry microsites.

Stakeholders reviewed both directions and selected one to carry forward into the broader redesign, confirming the new brand system could scale across a multi-market, multi-industry structure without losing usability.

Concepts for a Global Risk Intelligence Platform

A rolling out a new brand identity mega menu across its main site