When data can be represented in a hierarchical way, it can serve as the Read part in CRUD, and as a navigation tool. The following figure shows a CRUD of Organizations, Departments, and Employees records:

A key element in this kind of design is the use of most of the available space for the forms containing the input fields. Forms are shown in view mode, and are made editable when the user clicks an edit button. In the preceding figure, a short representation of the records appears in the navigation menu itself. In order to edit one record, the user can click it from the menu. When a record can be associated with one or many records of another type, they are grouped and shown in a hierarchical fashion in the menu. Top-level items in the menu don't necessarily need to be records themselves, since they can serve as a different kind of grouping. For example, a top item could show the Organizations option having all the actual organization records as children.

This kind of design works well for configuration options; however, it has the disadvantage of showing many options at the same time, which might cause a distraction for end users. For example, a user might forget to click the Save button after editing some fields.