While the new homepage design solved a lot of problems, it ended up with practical issues such as the ability to accommodate new forms of information. It was highly tailored to the exact data set and information architecture we had at the time, but earlier experiences demonstrated the risks in over-designing to a specific circumstance. The above image shows how the picture perfect interface falls apart with even a modest expansion of the IA.
I designed a new launch page, separately from the data driven home with the t-SNE visual.
No longer restricted to having to fit on nav links on the home page, I was able to expand the graph to the entire page, opening the possibility to do more with this data visualization.
Created a quick-nav menu layer
I then made the nav menu into a separate layer sitting on top of the data home.
Delivered the production build of our new navigation
With a fully realized-design, we delivered a working version of the new navigation model and home screen. The completeness of the spatial-mental model of this design reduced the difficulty of further designing for this product.