Voluum — Case study

Side Navigation Redesign. Clarity for experts and newcomers alike.

A long-lived ad-tech platform, two products sharing one cluttered panel, and expert-only features intimidating every new user. The redesign restructured the platform's information architecture — and introduced a culture of evidence-based design along the way.

Role

Product Designer — discovery to delivery

Timeline

2 months

Tools

Figma · Optimal Workshop · usability testing

Impact

45/46 beta users kept the new navigation

Voluum's shipped left-hand navigation next to a dense reporting drill-down — The shipped result — a focused left-hand panel next to the data-dense reporting it has to coexist with.

Context

Voluum is used by expert media buyers, and like many long-lived SaaS products it had accumulated legacy complexity. Features were bolted onto the navigation over years, creating clutter and even conflicting flows. Two different products — Voluum Tracker and Voluum DSP — shared the same left-side panel, and with DSP scheduled for sunset, it was the right moment to rework the experience around what Voluum was becoming.

The panel was also hurting acquisition: every expert-only feature was permanently visible, so new users met the full weight of the product on day one.

Problem

Legacy UI with too many conflicting elements
Two products sharing one panel — one being discontinued
Expert-only features constantly visible and distracting
Overwhelming experience for new users, steep learning curve
Growing technical debt on the frontend

Internal interviews with customer-facing teams confirmed the hypothesis: advanced users had learned to ignore the clutter, while new users were confused — sometimes intimidated — by it.

Process

Workshops with developers to evaluate technical feasibility, and with leadership to confirm product direction
Card sorting with customer success teams and selected clients to validate the structure
Three IA candidates explored, differing in hierarchy and labeling
Two rounds of usability testing — first across all three options, then narrowed to two refined versions

The tension to resolve: discoverability for power users versus clarity for newcomers. The winning version prioritised primary actions, grouped advanced features under expandable sections, and removed redundant items.

Before — Voluum's legacy horizontal top navigation with account controls scattered along the top bar — Before — the legacy horizontal bar: two products' worth of items in one strip, account controls scattered top-right.

After — the shipped side navigation with Dashboard, Tracker, Advanced and Automizer modules, workspace and settings grouped bottom-left — After — the shipped side navigation. Functionality split into clear modules (Dashboard · Tracker · Advanced · Automizer), with workspace, settings and account grouped bottom-left.

Shipped — and public

Voluum announced the release as "the biggest redesign of the Voluum interface" in its public changelog, rolled out in batches to the client base, and published a migration guide walking every customer through where their tools moved. The module structure — Dashboard, Tracker, Advanced, Automizer — is still how the product's documentation describes the interface today.

Results

45/46beta users chose to keep the new navigation after one week

+2.1year-over-year SUS score increase after release

3 → 1IA candidates narrowed through two rounds of usability testing

CS and AM teams reported smoother onboarding and fewer early blockers
Refactored navigation reduced frontend complexity, enabling faster iteration
Discovery surfaced feature ideas that still power the product backlog

More than a UI change — from that point on, features earned their place in the interface by proving useful to real users, not by seniority of request.