workday
workday
workday

Modernizing bottom navigation for an enhanced consumer-like experience.

Improving navigation clarity and accessibility through visual design.

B2B

B2B

B2B

SaaS

SaaS

SaaS

Project Summary

I joined the bottom navigation project to leverage my visual design and UI expertise and meet a tight deadline.

My contributions included refining the layout and exploring animation transitions, all to deliver a seamless and delightful consumer-like experience.

Impact

  • Optimized navigation for clarity and discoverability

  • Elevated UX with purposeful, accessible animation

  • Co-presented design rationale, gaining approval

Role

Lead Mobile Designer

Role

Lead Mobile Designer

Role

Lead Mobile Designer

Team

  • 2x Product Designers

Team

  • 1x Product Designer

Team

  • 1x Product Designer

  • 2x Product Managers

  • 2x Product Manager

  • 2x Product Manager

  • 1x Developer

  • 2x Developers

  • 2x Developers

  • 1x a11y Specialist

  • 1x Accessibility (a11y)

  • 1x Accessibility (a11y)

Timeline

3 Weeks

Timeline

3 Weeks

Timeline

3 Weeks

"Durojaiye's early concept work on menu tab interactions, particularly the transition between selected and unselected states, laid the groundwork for a clean, intuitive, and delightful design. I genuinely enjoyed our collaboration and consider it a hallmark experience."

Kyle Hegge

Lead Product Designer

original design
original design
original design

Identifying areas for improvement.

The original design primarily used iconography, which could be confusing, especially given Workday's global reach. While active tabs had a subtle visual difference, the distinction from inactive states could be more pronounced.

Additionally, the existing transition involved a simple slide from one icon to another, which offered an opportunity for more engaging visual feedback.

1

3

2

1

2

1

Low contrast selection states

2

Unclear navigation points

3

Light animation interaction

ideation
ideation
ideation

Experimenting with concepts.

Following inspiration research, I developed a few concepts and presented them to the mobile team. From there, we engaged in a collaborative discussion to determine which design to develop further. Here are a few of those explorations:

Home

Apps

My Tasks

1

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Profile

Added labels 1

Similar to current, with labels for improved readability, but doesn't stand out.

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Apps

My Tasks

1

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Profile

Added Labels 1a

Brand blue variation of 1; contrast was a primary concern.

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Apps

My Tasks

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Profile

Similar to Material Design

High contrast, Material Design-like; desired a more custom feel.

Home

Apps

My Tasks

1

Find

Profile

Selected design

Breaks the surface for a distinct, modern active state; more contrast needed.

Home

Apps

My Tasks

1

Find

Profile

Added labels 1

Similar to current, with labels for improved readability, but doesn't stand out.

Home

Apps

My Tasks

1

Find

Profile

Added Labels 1a

Brand blue variation of 1; contrast was a primary concern.

Home

Apps

My Tasks

Find

Profile

Similar to Material Design

High contrast, Material Design-like; desired a more custom feel.

Home

Apps

My Tasks

1

Find

Profile

Selected design

Breaks the surface for a distinct, modern active state; more contrast needed.

Collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration

Shaping the bump.

With a design direction chosen, focus shifted to granular refinement. I developed multiple variations exploring oval and circular forms to perfect the 'bump' shape. After two rounds of feedback and dot-voting, the most visually appealing iteration was selected.

Final Design
Final Design
Final Design

Finalizing for handoff.

Upon securing leadership buy-in, I put the final touches on visual design, creating a new bottom navigation that elevated and brought a consumer feel to a SaaS experience.

Improvements:

  • Higher contrast selection states

  • Clearer navigation points

  • Enhanced animation interaction

The design and animation specs were then handed off to the design lead, who created the JSON animation file that was given to Development.

Shortly after handoff, the new and improved bottom navigation was shipped, modernizing and enhancing the overall experience.