Helping corporate and residential clients find what they need faster with a smarter information architecture
Industry:
Property
Duration:
16 weeks
My role:
Product Designer (UX + UI)
Method:
Tree testing
🔎 Overview
Context
Finding the right property (whether it's a corporate office or a log cabin) shouldn’t feel like solving a maze. But Carter Jonas’ website made it tricky. The IA was messy, navigation confusing, and content buried. Clients struggled to find what they wanted, while the business risked lost leads and frustrated users.
Business goal
Redesign the IA to help corporate and residential clients find properties efficiently, boosting leads and improving satisfaction.
🤷♀️ The user & problem
User group
Corporate and residential property seekers.
The problem
Users were getting lost in a sea of options, risking frustration and abandonment. For Carter Jonas, that meant lost leads, unhappy clients, and a hit to credibility.
⚒️ My approach
I ran user interviews and tree testing to uncover how people navigated the site and where the pain points were.
Key insights:
Valuation journeys caused stress—users feared losing control and getting spammed by agents
Users struggled to tell if the site was for corporate or residential clients, having more clarity was key
Users often chose the right path but got tripped up by overly granular options
Navigation choices shifted depending on the task; users adapt their path to what makes intuitive sense for them
🧠 Behavioural principle used
Status quo bias
People resist change, even when it’s better.
👉 Why it applies here
Internal stakeholders wanted to preserve their own sections in the top nav, resisting change even when users would benefit from a simpler, clearer IA.
🚨 The messy bits i.e. what went wrong & how I fixed it
Problem
Internal resistance was high as stakeholders prized visibility over user experience. Getting IA changes approved took two rounds of testing.
How I iterated the design
Ran two rounds of tree testing and interviews
Balanced user needs with stakeholder concerns to achieve buy-in
✅ The outcome
The IA redesign turned Carter Jonas’ site from a confusing maze into a clear, intuitive experience for both corporate and residential clients. Users could quickly find what they needed, reducing frustration, while the business regained credibility and boosted lead generation. Smart navigation, clear labels, and prominent search made the experience simple, flexible, and user-friendly.
↪️ What I would do differently next time
Run A/B tests on live users for filter layouts before locking in a single IA structure.
