In November CatalystOne will begin rolling out a new product experience in line with our revised branding. It begins with a new left-side navigation, cleaner page chrome, and a design-system led refresh that puts clarity and content first. The goal: make the product feel even more modern and desirable, while we continue improving intuitiveness within each domain.
Meet the voice behind the visual lift
When Olivier Butstraen joined CatalystOne as VP of Product Design in January 2024, he stepped into a product with a proud, fifteen-year heritage. It’s the kind of complexity that only real-world, enterprise HR use can produce. That history brings value, but it also creates what Olivier calls “user-expense debt”, or those small frictions that add up over time when patterns diverge and workflows evolve.
“We knew we could not just ‘flip a switch’ on our user experience,” Olivier says. “Teams who own each domain are best placed to reshape workflows. In parallel, the design system team focused on desirability, the way the product feels and presents itself visually.”
This two-sided approach, domain teams improving intuitiveness, design leading desirability, is central to how CatalystOne approaches product design.
Why move navigation to the left?
For years, enterprise software chased top bars and mega menus. In practice, they do not scale well: A handful of slots at the top expand into multi-column overlays that are hard to scan and harder to learn. CatalystOne customers work with dense, data-rich screens—think people directories, appraisal lists, or task queues—so vertical space matters.
Left-side navigation solves for three things:
- Scannability: A single, vertical column is easier and faster to scan than multi-column mega menus.
- Focus on content: Screens are getting wider, not taller. Moving navigation to the side frees valuable vertical space for tables, forms, and long-running processes. We also slimmed the top bar to the bare minimum.
- Sustainable scale: As the product grows, a vertical list, combined with search, scales more gracefully than a top bar.
“Width is plentiful. Height is precious,” Olivier notes. “Left navigation gives that height back to the work.”
Shifting mental models from “who” to “what”
Previously, many entry points were organised around you, your employees, or broad administration buckets. The new navigation shifts to thematic, domain-based entry points. Clear topics like one to ones, compensation, and reports tend to be a better fit for how HR leaders and employees think about their goals.
If you are looking for, say, one to ones, you will land in a space that includes your conversations and your team’s, instead of bouncing between “me” and “my employees.” Over time, this will reduce the number of menu items and remove duplicated pathways. The aim is clearer entry points, with contextual actions starting from the theme itself.
Search stays, but with simpler menu
Customers already rely on menu search to jump quickly to known items. That does not change. In fact, it becomes even more useful because the menu is flatter and cleaner. If you know the name, type to find; if you do not, the themed structure supports confident exploration.
Change, on your terms
We know large organisations benefit from controlled rollouts. HR administrators will have a toggle to enable the new experience on their schedule, easing adoption and training. The intent is simple: give teams time to get familiar, gather feedback, and switch with confidence.
“Our hope is that the first click brings a ‘wow’,” Olivier says. “Navigation patterns take a bit to relearn, but the visual clarity should be felt immediately.”
Inclusive by design
It's critical to us that CatalystOne alligns with common accessibility standards. Along those lines, the new navigation is built with a logical, intuitive tab order, clear labels, and predictable focus states, so users navigating with keyboards, and those using screen readers, can move through the product efficiently.
We’ve also refined the overall information hierarchy and contrast. The interface now follows three clear layers: (1) navigation, which is white on dark purple; (2) the global content frame, including a sand‑colour background to reduce eye strain; and (3) the reading surface, offering a clean white content area for the highest contrast when scanning and reading.
“Accessibility is good design,” Olivier says. “When we standardise patterns and lower cognitive load, we help every user, not just a subset.”
What ships first, and what comes next
Our first release focuses on the visual lift and global navigation. Expect immediate changes when you enable the new experience:
- Collapsable Left-side navigation with a slimmer top bar
- Thematic entry points that cluster related work
- A consistent design language, powered by our design system
From there, we will iterate continuously:
- Consolidated tables: CatalystOne is rich with tables. We will align behaviours and interactions so a table feels and works the same way across modules—helping users carry a single mental model everywhere.
- Fewer menu items: As domain teams rebalance flows, you will see redundant entry points disappear. Complexity should live where work is done, not in the global menu.
- Design-system evolution: With a dedicated team stewarding patterns and micro-interactions, expect continuous refinement—not just big-bang changes.
- Continuous UX improvements: All product teams will be building on the visual lift with brand new functionality
What this means for HR leaders
- Faster onboarding: Clearer entry points and predictable tables shorten time-to-value.
- Better visibility: More vertical space for content means more signal on every page.
- Future-proof foundation: A living design system helps us ship improvements faster, and more safely.
Have thoughts? We want to hear them
We see each release as a conversation with our customers. As domains continue to sharpen their workflows, your feedback will shape the next iterations. Tell us what feels smoother, what still feels heavy, and where the structure can help you think less and do more.
