The original Country Road header had accumulated a number of usability issues over time. Spanning three separate rows, it consumed significant screen real estate before a user could even begin browsing.
The layout lacked a clear visual hierarchy, high-priority navigation competed for attention alongside low-traffic utility links like 'Rewards Program', 'Climate Fund', etc, while key actions like search were reduced to an unlabelled icon. The brand switcher sat in an awkward middle position with no clear visual relationship to the content around it, and the all-caps navigation labels added unnecessary visual weight, making the menu harder to scan. The redesign sought to address all of this; collapsing the header into a tighter, more purposeful layout with a clear focal point, better information hierarchy, and a search bar prominent enough to be found.
The old megamenu attempted to surface everything at once, expanding all categories, subcategories, brand names, and editorial content simultaneously in a dense horizontal layout. With no clear hierarchy between headings and subcategories, and promotional imagery reduced to small competing thumbnails, users were left with little direction on where to look. The design also had no room to grow, with an ever-expanding product catalogue only adding to the cognitive load.
The redesign addressed this through a progressive, waterfall-style navigation that reveals subcategories on demand, reducing visual noise significantly. Editorial imagery was given proper presence in a dedicated right panel, utility links were deprioritised to the bottom of the menu, and Sale was given distinct visual treatment to draw the eye. This resulted in a megamenu that feels considered rather than cluttered.
The second level of the megamenu introduces a subtle but deliberate shift in background colour between the two panels, a slightly warmer tone on the left against a cleaner white on the right. This creates enough visual separation for users to distinguish between category and subcategory, while the white colour of the sub-category panel bleeds into the category panel to reinforce which link is active. An "All Clothing" link sits at the top of each subcategory list, giving users a quick path to the full category without needing to scan the entire list. Sale incentive labels appear inline alongside relevant subcategories in a distinct accent colour, providing a contextual nudge to click through at the exact moment a user is browsing, without disrupting the overall calm of the layout.
