diff --git a/aio/src/app/navigation/navigation.service.ts b/aio/src/app/navigation/navigation.service.ts
index fa74ea0408..de5d4a500a 100644
--- a/aio/src/app/navigation/navigation.service.ts
+++ b/aio/src/app/navigation/navigation.service.ts
@@ -16,26 +16,34 @@ export interface NavigationViews {
   [name: string]: NavigationNode[];
 }
 
-export interface NavigationMap {
-  [url: string]: NavigationMapItem;
-}
-
-export interface NavigationMapItem {
-  node: NavigationNode;
-  parents: NavigationNode[];
-}
-
 const navigationPath = 'content/navigation.json';
 
 @Injectable()
 export class NavigationService {
 
-  navigationViews = this.fetchNavigation();
-  selectedNodes = this.getActiveNodes();
+  /**
+   * An observable collection of NavigationNode trees, which can be used to render navigational menus
+   */
+  navigationViews = this.fetchNavigationViews();
+  /**
+   * An observable array of nodes that indicate which nodes in the `navigationViews` match the current URL location
+   */
+  selectedNodes = this.getSelectedNodes();
 
   constructor(private http: Http, private location: LocationService, private logger: Logger) { }
 
-  private fetchNavigation(): Observable<NavigationViews> {
+  /**
+   * Get an observable that fetches the `NavigationViews` from the server.
+   * We create an observable by calling `http.get` but then publish it to share the result
+   * among multiple subscribers, without triggering new requests.
+   * We use `publishLast` because once the http request is complete the request observable completes.
+   * If you use `publish` here then the completed request observable will cause the subscribed observables to complete too.
+   * We `connect` to the published observable to trigger the request immediately.
+   * We could use `.refCount` here but then if the subscribers went from 1 -> 0 -> 1 then you would get
+   * another request to the server.
+   * We are not storing the subscription from connecting as we do not expect this service to be destroyed.
+   */
+  private fetchNavigationViews(): Observable<NavigationViews> {
     const navigationViews = this.http.get(navigationPath)
              .map(res => res.json() as NavigationViews)
              .publishLast();
@@ -43,34 +51,41 @@ export class NavigationService {
     return navigationViews;
   }
 
-  private getActiveNodes() {
-    const currentMapItem = combineLatest(
-      this.navigationViews.map(this.computeNavMap),
+  /**
+   * Get an observable that will list the nodes that are currently selected
+   * We use `publishReplay(1)` because otherwise subscribers will have to wait until the next
+   * URL change before they receive an emission.
+   * See above for discussion of using `connect`.
+   */
+  private getSelectedNodes() {
+    const selectedNodes = combineLatest(
+      this.navigationViews.map(this.computeUrlToNodesMap),
       this.location.currentUrl,
-      (navMap, url) => navMap[url]);
-    const activeNodes = currentMapItem
-      .map(item => item ? [item.node, ...item.parents] : [])
-      .publishReplay();
-    activeNodes.connect();
-    return activeNodes;
+      (navMap, url) => navMap[url] || [])
+      .publishReplay(1);
+    selectedNodes.connect();
+    return selectedNodes;
   }
 
-  private computeNavMap(navigation: NavigationViews): NavigationMap {
-    const navMap: NavigationMap = {};
-    Object.keys(navigation).forEach(key => navigation[key].forEach(node => walkNodes(node, null)));
+  /**
+   * Compute a mapping from URL to an array of nodes, where the first node in the array
+   * is the one that matches the URL and the rest are the ancestors of that node.
+   *
+   * @param navigation A collection of navigation nodes that are to be mapped
+   */
+  private computeUrlToNodesMap(navigation: NavigationViews) {
+    const navMap = {};
+    Object.keys(navigation).forEach(key => navigation[key].forEach(node => walkNodes(node)));
     return navMap;
 
-    function walkNodes(node: NavigationNode, parent: NavigationMapItem | null) {
-      const item: NavigationMapItem = { node, parents: [] };
-      if (parent) {
-        item.parents = [parent.node, ...parent.parents];
-      }
+    function walkNodes(node: NavigationNode, ancestors: NavigationNode[] = []) {
+      const nodes = [node, ...ancestors];
       if (node.url) {
-        // only map to this item if it has a url associated with it
-        navMap[node.url] = item;
+        // only map to this node if it has a url associated with it
+        navMap[node.url] = nodes;
       }
       if (node.children) {
-        node.children.forEach(child => walkNodes(child, item));
+        node.children.forEach(child => walkNodes(child, nodes));
       }
     }
   }