Organizing the page structure according to the decision journey.
When website navigation reflects how the company organizes itself rather than how customers think, customers get lost before reaching the contact point.
The structure and navigation of the page must align with the customer's thought process, not your departmental diagram. The core principle is: if customers often look in a certain place, place the content there. When the structure deviates from the user's familiar model, the completion rate decreases and errors increase, no matter how beautiful the interface is.
- customers need to be guided through consideration steps before contacting.
- want to navigate according to customer language, not internal
- navigating to reflect the organizational chart
- name items using internal terminology that customers do not understand
The website page structure is often built for the convenience of those who create it, not for those who use it. The service department creates one section, the marketing department adds another, and management wants to include a company introduction page. The result is a navigation menu that reflects the internal organizational chart, while customers visiting the page only have one question in mind: "Does this help me, and where do I start?"
Customers do not read the website in your order.
Customers enter the page with pre-existing expectations about where content should be placed and what it should be called. These expectations are formed from dozens of websites they have used before, not from how you organize your business. When the structure deviates from that familiar model, users search in the wrong places, overlook important content, and then exit because they can't find what they need, even though it is still somewhere on the page.
The principle comes from research by the Nielsen Norman Group (a leading user experience research organization): if customers often look in the wrong places, do not adjust the customers, but move the content to where they are looking. The right question is not "does this page have enough information?" but "can customers find that information in the way they think?"
Two structural arrangements, two different situations
Organized by decision journey: Suitable when customers need guidance through the consideration steps before contacting or purchasing. For example, customers may not be sure what services they need, require help identifying their issues first, then find the right solution, and finally feel confident enough to reach out. The structure should guide them step by step, without jumping straight to the pricing.
Organized by familiar content types: Suitable when customers already know what they need and just want to find it quickly. For example, customers may have been referred and are looking for the contact page or a specific service category. At this point, the structure needs to be short, clear, and straightforward.
Most service brand websites in Vietnam fall into the first category, as customers often visit the site when they are uncertain. The structure needs to create a consideration pathway, not just display information.
Factors to check before structuring
- Customers often start their search from somewhere and call for what they need using specific terms, as the guiding language must align with the customer's language, not internal jargon.
- The order of steps for customers to make decisions: what they need to know first, what to know later, and what makes them hesitate before reaching out.
- Is the path to the conversion point (where the client takes action such as contacting, scheduling, or purchasing) short and clear? Each additional step is an opportunity for the client to drop off.
- Is the primary navigation overloaded with too many options? When customers have to read too many items before deciding where to click, they often end up not clicking anywhere.
Most common errors encountered by Sinh Vũ
Mistake number one is navigation reflecting the departmental chart. If you have a design department, a communications department, and a consulting department, the menu shows three corresponding items, even though customers do not know or care about how the company is organized internally. Customers just want to know what you can do for them.
Mistake number two is naming sections with internal jargon. "Integrated solutions" or "Brand ecosystem" are phrases meaningful to the internal team, but for first-time visitors to the site, they do not evoke any action.
Mistake number three is cramming too many level one items due to fear of missing information. The result is that customers get lost in navigation, unable to read any content before losing their way.
Creating a system that matches the user's thought process: if they are looking in the wrong place, move the content to where they are searching.
NN/G: Mental Models and User Experience Design
How Sinh Vũ handles this task
Sinh Vũ begins each website project with a customer journey map, outlining each step the customer takes from being unaware of the brand to contacting or purchasing. From this map, the sitemap and wireframe are created in the order determined by the customer, not how the business wants to present itself.
For projects requiring higher certainty, Sinh Vũ uses card sorting techniques: providing a small group of actual customers with cards labeled with each piece of content, then allowing them to group them according to their own thinking. The results often reveal surprising discrepancies between how the business categorizes and how customers categorize the same items.
Overarching principle: the page structure is a tool to guide decisions, not an information table of contents. When the structure is arranged correctly according to the customer’s decision journey, the rate of customers reaching the contact point will significantly improve without changing the interface or content.
Decision checklist
Topic: Organizing page structure based on how customers make decisions. Sinh Vũ guide, sinhvu.com
Select each item you find appropriate, then print or save as PDF to take with you.
If you have marked most of the signs above, this is the time to discuss in more detail. Sinh Vũ can help you review and propose a direction.
References
NN/G: Card Sorting, Uncover Users' Mental Models; NN/G: Mental Models and User Experience Design; Information Architecture Authority: Core Principles of IA. Sinh Vũ's practical experience in brand website projects in Vietnam.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to hire someone to conduct user research to get this done?
Not necessarily. For small and medium-sized enterprises, you can start by directly interviewing 5 to 7 actual customers, asking them what they look for and what terms they use. The results will immediately reveal discrepancies between internal language and customer language. Sinh Vũ often conducts this step during the project exploration phase before creating the sitemap.
Fewer navigation items are much better than many, but how few is enough?
There is no absolute number, but the practical principle is that level one navigation should encapsulate the choices that customers genuinely deliberate when first entering the site. If customers only need to know what you do, for whom, and how to contact you, then three to four level one items are usually sufficient. Adding more items just to have 'everything' is the most common mistake Sinh Vũ encounters when taking on redesign projects.
I already have a website, how can I tell if the current structure has issues?
The clearest sign is when customers have to ask you again about things already on the website, or when the rate of people visiting the page and then leaving without doing anything is high. Sinh Vũ often suggests that clients watch others use the website for the first time without guidance. Just observing a few times will reveal the bottlenecks.