{"id":174,"slug":"nng-audience-based-navigation-degrades-usability-2022","title":"NN/g: audience-based navigation \"will often degrade usability\" (Laubheimer, Aug 14 2022)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["information-architecture","navigation-design"],"reference_body":"**Quote (Page Laubheimer, NN/g, Aug 14, 2022):**\n\n> \"Segmenting a website's navigation by audience categories will often degrade usability, either because users belong in multiple categories, or because they feel the need to look at content targeted at several segments.\"\n\n**Source:** <https://www.nngroup.com/articles/audience-based-navigation/>\n\n**Confidence:** Verified (primary NN/g research). 2022 but foundational — remains NN/g's flagship guidance on this pattern as of May 2026.\n\n**The condition under which audience-based nav works:** when categories are (a) mutually exclusive, (b) jargon-free, and (c) each section contains substantially unique content. Small service businesses rarely meet all three. The \"for farmers / for fleets\" carousel that visually segments a homepage often fails (a) and (c) silently — the same SKUs sit behind both buttons.\n\n**Used in:** [[rule-avoid-audience-based-primary-nav]] and the steel-man counter-argument in [[research-brief-ia-multi-vertical-service-business]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"nng-five-problems-with-role-based-navigation","title":"NN/g: five recurring problems with role-based navigation (Laubheimer, 2022)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-avoid-audience-based-primary-nav","title":"RULE: Don't use audience-based primary nav unless audience categories are mutually exclusive, jargon-free, with substantially unique content","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"research-brief-ia-multi-vertical-service-business","title":"Research brief: Information architecture for service businesses with multiple verticals (piece 6 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T19:40:48.986Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T19:40:48.986Z"}