Release Notes March 2026 - Navigation Improvements

Navigation is one of those product surfaces people rarely talk about when it works well, and feel every day when it doesn’t.

As Yomly has grown, so has the sidebar. More tools, more permissions, more ways for managers and employees to get work done. But over time, that growth created friction in a place that should feel effortless. Items stacked higher. Labels became harder to scan. Finding the right destination started to take more attention than it should. 

In customer conversations, we heard the same theme again and again: the navigation had become harder to read, harder to trust at a glance, and heavier than the rest of the product experience around it.
 

This release is our first step in solving that.

We rebuilt the left-hand navigation from the ground up using Yomly’s new design system, with a simple goal: make it easier to see, understand, and move. 

• Navigation items are now larger and more legible. 
• Second-level destinations appear in a hover menu instead of expanding inline, which keeps the sidebar compact and stable even for users with broad permissions. 

The result is a navigation experience that feels lighter, calmer, and easier to scan without asking anyone to relearn where things live.
 

Just as important is what we did not change. We have kept the grouping and order of items familiar on purpose. Reorganizing navigation changes people’s habits, workflows, and sense of orientation. That is a bigger product decision, and one we believe should be made deliberately, with the right customer input behind it. This release is a readability improvement, not a restructure. It should feel immediately familiar, just more usable.

It is also the beginning of something bigger.

Over the next 18 months, this navigation release will serve as an early foundation for a broader relaunch of Yomly. We are rethinking the product experience layer by layer: clearer systems, more consistent interactions, stronger information hierarchy, and a design language that better reflects the kind of product Yomly is becoming. 

This first release is intentionally focused and practical, but it points toward a larger ambition: a Yomly that feels more coherent, more modern, and more confident at every touchpoint.

Good product change does not always begin with a dramatic reinvention. Sometimes it begins by making an everyday interaction feel easier, quieter, and more considered. That is what this release is about.