Strategies for Categorizing Categories

Organizing Thousands of Pages: Why Categorization Matters

When a retailer pushes out thousands of product pages, the most common pitfall is that customers lose the ability to find what they want. A site’s first level of organization - usually the broadest categories - sets the stage for everything that follows. On a typical apparel site, the initial categories might be “Women,” “Men,” and “Home.” These high‑level buckets are intentionally simple; the goal is to reduce friction right after the visitor lands on the homepage. From there, each bucket feeds into a gallery of items that shares a theme, such as a women’s swimwear collection or a men’s winter jacket line. These galleries serve as the first point of contact for many shoppers and must balance visual appeal with the ability to filter or sort items.

Even with clear top‑level categories, the navigation that sits between the homepage and the galleries can vary widely. This intermediate layer, often called a department page, is where most design experiments occur. Designers wrestle with the trade‑off between showing a lot of choices up front - forcing the user to sift through many options - and keeping the interface lean enough that the customer can focus on a single sub‑category. The challenge is to give shoppers the right amount of context and control without overloading the page. The question becomes: which design choices actually reduce the number of clicks needed to find a product, or do they simply add steps that frustrate users?

Research into this question typically starts with a set of real‑world e‑commerce sites that share a product line, such as apparel or home goods. In a recent study, thirteen such sites were examined. While the sites differed in their branding and visual style, they all shared the same core structure: a handful of top‑level categories, a gallery for each category, and one or more department pages that split those galleries into more granular sub‑categories. By analyzing how each site organized these intermediate pages, researchers could isolate the effect of design on user behavior. The hypothesis was that the design of the department pages would influence how quickly and successfully users could locate the items on their shopping list.

To keep the focus tight, the research limited its scope to items that fell neatly into a simple category hierarchy. Complex products - such as office supplies, technical gear, or help articles - tend to require a different set of taxonomies, so the study purposely sidestepped those. Instead, it leaned on apparel and home goods sites, where a straightforward “Women/ Men / Home” division is common. Even within that framework, however, there were subtle differences. Some sites grouped items by season, others by material, and a few used a mix of both. The resulting variations created a natural experiment in how users respond to different levels of detail and navigation structure.

One key insight from the initial analysis was that the majority of user traffic tended to stay within the categorization system rather than jumping straight to a site’s search bar. Across the thirteen sites, only 22% of user interactions involved searching for a specific SKU or brand. That leaves a solid 78% of users navigating through categories. When the navigation is poorly designed, those 78% become a liability. Every additional breadcrumb, every mis‑aligned link, and every unnecessary hover action can cost the site both in terms of conversion rates and in the mental load placed on the shopper. For designers, the takeaway is clear: invest time in understanding how shoppers move from the top‑level categories to the specific product galleries, and ensure that each step feels natural and intuitive.

Finally, the study’s framework underscores that not all “category” pages are created equal. Even when two sites share the same product inventory, the way those products are presented can make a measurable difference in how quickly users make a purchase. In the next section, we break down the five distinct department‑page patterns that emerged from the research, describing how each one guides users toward the final product image.

Five Department‑Page Patterns Explored

The research distilled thirteen sites into five recognizable patterns for how department pages are constructed. Each pattern offers a different balance between breadth of choice and depth of information, and each has implications for the shopper’s mental journey. The first and most common design groups department links into a left‑hand navigation panel while the main area displays a gallery of items. Macy’s is a textbook example of this layout. From the Women section, users click on Tops, and a new page appears with a list of all available tops in a grid. The left panel remains static, letting users jump to any other sub‑category without needing to reload the page. The advantage is that users can see many options at once, but the downside is that the sheer number of items can be overwhelming, especially if the gallery contains dozens of variations.

The second pattern flips the focus to a top‑navigation menu that functions like a mega‑menu. Gap and Victoria’s Secret illustrate this approach. When a shopper selects Women from the top bar, a dropdown reveals sub‑categories like Dresses, Tops, and Accessories. Clicking a sub‑category instantly repositions the page to display the relevant gallery, but the top‑menu remains visible, allowing quick switching. This design reduces the amount of scrolling needed and keeps the overall layout more fluid. However, it can also obscure the sheer number of available options, which may deter a shopper looking for a wide range of styles.

The third pattern is a hybrid of left‑nav and gallery. Old Navy shows how a single page can toggle between a gallery and a more detailed product list depending on the sub‑category. For instance, clicking on Girls then Accessories leads to a gallery of small items, whereas Girls then Skirts & Dresses opens a list that includes additional filtering options. This dual approach lets designers tailor the experience to the specific type of product. If the sub‑category is large and diverse, a list with filters is preferable; if it’s a focused set, a gallery provides visual context.

The fourth pattern merges product details directly into the department page. Lands’ End uses a design where the left side shows a textual list of categories - Twinsets, Cardigans, Cashmere - and the main area features a preview of each category. Clicking a category jumps to a deeper gallery or a detailed page. This structure gives shoppers an overview of the range before diving deeper, reducing the risk of landing in a “wrong gallery.” The textual labels also provide context that images alone can’t convey, such as fabric type or intended use.

The fifth and final pattern employs a text list with an optional photo toggle. Eddie Bauer presents all items in a department as a plain list on the left, and each item has a “View Photos” link that brings up a gallery. This two‑step approach is particularly useful for shoppers who prefer to read descriptions first and then glance at images if they’re interested. It can also keep the initial page load lighter, which is beneficial for mobile devices or slower connections.

All five patterns have their merits, but the design choice should align with the site’s target audience and the nature of the products. For instance, a high‑volume apparel retailer may benefit from the left‑nav gallery to expose shoppers to many options quickly. A specialty retailer that sells luxury fabrics might prefer the Lands’ End style, where text labels help highlight craftsmanship. By matching the navigation structure to the shopper’s expectations, designers can lower friction and improve conversion rates.

With the patterns defined, the next logical step is to see how they actually affect real shoppers. The research team set up a controlled study to observe how users interacted with each design, measuring key metrics such as the number of clicks before adding an item to the cart and the frequency of “back” button usage.

What User Testing Revealed About Navigation Effectiveness

To evaluate the practical impact of each department‑page design, researchers recruited 44 participants who arrived with a pre‑set list of items they intended to buy. The experiment gave them both the money and permission to purchase as many items from their list as possible. The goal was to mimic a motivated shopper rather than a casual browser, providing a clearer view of how navigation design influences purchasing decisions. In total, 687 products were added to carts across all sessions. The study’s controlled environment allowed the team to isolate navigation as the primary variable while holding other factors - such as product assortment and pricing - constant.

One of the most striking findings was that users relied on the categorization scheme far more than the search function. With only 22% of interactions involving the site’s search bar, 78% of users found what they needed through category navigation. This underscores the importance of having a well‑thought‑out department‑page design: if the path to a product is convoluted, even the most motivated shopper will become frustrated.

Comparing the five patterns, the study found a clear ordering of effectiveness. Lands’ End’s hybrid textual–gallery design emerged as the top performer, driving the highest number of purchases per user. Old Navy’s combination approach came in second place. In contrast, the conventional left‑nav gallery - used by Macy’s and similar retailers - performed the poorest. The data suggest that the more a design helps users avoid “wrong galleries” or dead‑end categories, the higher the likelihood of conversion.

To quantify this, the researchers tracked the number of page views each shopper made before adding an item to their cart. On average, users navigating through Lands’ End’s design visited only about half the number of pages needed to make a purchase compared to those using the Macy’s layout. Fewer page views translate to less time spent searching and lower chances of dropping out. The relationship was linear: the more pages a user traversed, the less likely they were to buy, regardless of the size of the product list they were aiming for.

Another metric of interest was the frequency of “back” button clicks. A high back‑button rate signals that users landed in an unexpected or irrelevant gallery. Lands’ End’s design reduced back‑button usage by roughly 40% compared to the left‑nav gallery. By presenting category labels and a clearer path, shoppers could skip unnecessary detours. This not only improved conversion rates but also likely improved user satisfaction, as customers spend less time navigating and more time reviewing options.

These results have practical implications for a wide range of content‑heavy sites beyond apparel. Think of job boards, news archives, or even internal knowledge bases. By organizing information into clear, textual categories with optional image galleries, a site can help users reach their target content faster and with less frustration. For instance, a career portal could list job families on the left and provide a quick‑view gallery of featured openings on the right. Users would then decide whether to dive deeper or explore another family, mirroring the Lands’ End experience.

Not every category requires images. In the Lands’ End design, pictures of a “twinset” or a “cashmere sweater” provide immediate visual cues that help the shopper decide, while generic images - such as a plain cotton shirt - offer little extra value. For content types that lack visual appeal, such as medical condition descriptions or policy documents, the text‑only approach works fine. The key takeaway is that each page should contain only the information that helps the user decide. Removing irrelevant details keeps the interface clean and accelerates the decision process.

In sum, the study demonstrates that thoughtful department‑page design can dramatically influence how quickly and successfully shoppers find what they want. By adopting a hybrid, textual‑gallery approach that reduces unnecessary page views and back‑button usage, e‑commerce sites - and other large content repositories - can improve both conversion rates and user experience.