Industry

Insurance

Insurance

Client

Pacific Life

Pacific Life

Team

The Barbarian Group

The Barbarian Group

Role

Product Designer

Product Designer

Timeline

September – November, 2024 (3 months)

September – November, 2024 (3 months)

Pacific Life -
Web Navigation System

Improving Navigation to Support Pacific Life’s Transition to a Digital-First Approach

Improving Navigation to Support Pacific Life’s Transition to a Digital-First Approach

Improving Navigation to Support Pacific Life’s Transition to a Digital-First Approach

Pacific Life, a 160-year-old insurance company in Newport, California, aimed to improve its digital experience starting with a redesign of its web navigation system. As part of The Barbarian Group team, I worked on creating a more user-friendly system that maintains the integrity of existing content and products while addressing usability challenges. The updated design is currently in development and will soon be live on Pacific Life’s website.

Designing a Tailored Navigation System for Diverse User Groups

Designing a Tailored Navigation System for Diverse User Groups

Designing a Tailored Navigation System for Diverse User Groups

The key challenge in redesigning Pacific Life’s web navigation was addressing the unique composition of its target audience within the insurance industry. Visitors to Pacific Life’s website fall into four distinct groups—Individuals, Financial Professionals, Institutions, and Employers—each requiring access to different sets of information and services. To resolve this, we developed a multi-tiered navigation structure that intuitively guides users to the content they need.


The design introduces a clear hierarchy: Tier 1 allows users to identify their audience group, Tier 2 displays the main navigation menus relevant to their selection, and Tier 3 reveals detailed submenus for deeper exploration. This structured approach ensures a streamlined and personalized experience for all user groups, enhancing accessibility and reducing cognitive load. By implementing this solution, Pacific Life’s navigation now balances complexity with clarity, better serving its diverse audience and supporting their digital transformation goals.

Previous Web Structure

Redesigned Web Structure

Redesigning the high-level web structure for a fundamental solution

Redesigning the high-level web structure for a fundamental solution

Redesigning the high-level web structure for a fundamental solution

The navigational challenge of the Pacific Life website is not merely about designing navigation and CTAs but understanding why the navigation became so complex in the first place. Therefore, before diving into the design phase, the key task was to analyze the existing web structure and determine how to restructure and simplify it effectively.

Given the constraints of time and resources, our team couldn’t fully oversee the content strategy. Instead, we retained the existing content while designing a new site structure.


We significantly improved the previous structure—which did not account for distinct visitor groups—by introducing a more segmented experience tailored to four key audiences: 1. Individuals 2. Employers 3. Institutions 4. Financial Professionals.

The images above show Pacific Life’s desktop and mobile websites before the redesign. The approach of grouping all submenus for different audience groups into a single menu reduced the total number of menus, but it made it challenging to meet the unique needs of each user group effectively.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

– Epictetus

© 2025, Téo Kim

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

– Epictetus

© 2025, Téo Kim

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

– Epictetus

© 2025, Téo Kim