RULE: Don't use audience-based primary nav unless audience categories are mutually exclusive, jargon-free, with substantially unique content
Rule: For Candid Creative client sites, audience-based primary navigation ("For Farmers," "For Fleet Managers," "For Homeowners") is the default exception, not the default rule. Use it only when:
- Audience categories are mutually exclusive (a buyer self-identifies as exactly one)
- Labels are jargon-free (the buyer recognizes themselves in the words)
- Each section has substantially unique content (not the same SKUs with the audience name swapped)
If any of the three fail, switch to subject-based IA (Industries + Services as orthogonal axes).
Why: NN/g's flagship finding (NN/g: audience-based navigation "will often degrade usability" (Laubheimer, Aug 14 2022)): "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." Five recurring problems documented in NN/g: five recurring problems with role-based navigation (Laubheimer, 2022).
How to apply: Before recommending audience-led IA, run the five NN/g problems against the client's actual buyer set. If three or more apply, default to Industries × Services. The honest small-business pattern is hub-and-spoke (RULE: 4-15-person service businesses use hub-and-spoke IA, not enterprise matrix. Don't pretend to be Dentons.), not audience-segmented.