The advice you gave on improving the user onboarding and simplified navigation is impeccable: proper structure and predictable workflows really matter. A similar concept that could supplement this is the borrowing of design patterns when it comes to well organized menu systems (such as on popular restaurant websites Jollibee Menu) where the way prices are placed and the categories are shown are made simple and consistent. Using such transparency in portal design would go a long way towards limiting friction and maximizing ease of use to new users.