Samsung : Personalising navigation

A dropdown menu changes according to the site user’s activity.

The Site

Samsung, South Korea-based consumer electronics manufacturer, features a primary dropdown menu on its UK site that is customised and refreshed in line with user activity.

The Products section’s mega dropdown menu includes a ‘Recently viewed’ panel running along the bottom portion of the dropdown. After users have visited a product page, a link to the page (along with an image of the product) appears in the ‘Recently viewed’ list. As users browse the section further, the menu is added to until it shows the four most recent products that have been viewed.

The use of browser cookies allows the links to be retained and presented to the user when they return from spending time away from the section or the site.

The Takeaway

Samsung has implemented an interesting method of personalising a primary dropdown menu, allowing users to return to ‘deep’ pages with a single click. Unlike with other forms of website personalisation, users are not required to configure menus or widgets themselves. Instead, the site works away in the background, maintaining customised menus that offer uniquely useful links.

The function adds a new dimension to the rich dropdown menus that are becoming a regular feature of corporate sites. Rather than a fixed selection of links chosen by the site owner, the Samsung dropdown’s contents are dynamic, adapting to the activity of users as they browse and (thanks to the use of browser cookies) recalling it for future sessions. While its restriction here to the Products section shows an appropriate customer-focused deployment it also highlights the potential for content research in other areas of menus that can learn, adapt and cater for the needs of each user as they browse the site.

First published on 31 May, 2012