user research . IA redesign. REsponsive web
Intranet Reimagined: Designing a One-Stop Experience for Employees
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user research . IA redesign. REsponsive web
RiverStone Group LLC is a service company managing run-off insurance and reinsurance businesses with over 400 professionals operating across the U.S.
Previously, the outdated and disjointed experience made the intranet frustrating to use. With 42 digital tools and countless resources on SharePoint On-premises, employees couldn’t find relevant and timely information. This digital experience reduced employee productivity levels. As a result, Riverstone Group needed to refresh its intranet to improve employees productivity and cultivate company culture through improved broadcasting news and social engagement.
Aug 2020 - Oct 2020 (6 Design sprints)
User research, interaction design, visual design and prototyping
6 developers, 1 project manager and a product manager overseeing the project
The goal is to create an action-oriented and easy-to-navigate intranet where the company can post announcements and employees can socialize with peers and manage everyday tasks. The intranet will be a one-stop shop that helps employees make the most of their day.
User research,
Interaction design, prototyping, visual design
Aug 2020 - Oct 2020
(3 Design sprints)
4 developers, 1 project manager and a product manager overseeing the project
RiverStone Group LLC is a service company managing run-off insurance and reinsurance businesses with over 400 professionals operating across the U.S.
Currently, the outdated and disjointed experience made the intranet frustrating to use. With 42 digital tools and countless resources on SharePoint On-premises, employees can't find relevant and timely information. This digital experience reduces employees' productivity levels. As a result, the company felt the urge to refresh the intranet to keep employees productive and make their daily lives easier.
The goal is to create an action-oriented and easy-to-navigate intranet where the company can post announcements and employees can socialize with peers and manage everyday tasks. The intranet will be a one-stop shop that helps employees make the most of their day.
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We created a research plan that included a questionnaire and two prototype concepts. After synthesizing 12 stakeholders feedback, it revealed the current pain points and what people envision the future state could look like. Here are 5 common themes the employees addressed:
“
I think the intranet can help people to find information quickly, to get live discussion quickly, to know upcoming deadlines. I want it to be a one stop shop for everyone.
-- Paul Ziska
VP insurance service
“
The intranet can be a main space for the associates to start their day. A place that we can truly be productive, not just communication or access documents.
-- Silvia Albert
Internal audit team
“
"I would like the content to be more open and dynamic for me to access. We have a lot of trainings and documents for department specific on Rivernet."
-- Pill Woods
Process Improvement consultant
1.
Smart Notification
2.
Role-Based View
3.
Team Status
To take interview insights and user pain points as design opportunities, we came up with design principles to keep the design team focus on critical issues. We ensured every design decision addresses at least one design principle.
4.
Access Resources
5.
Content Relevancy
6.
Habit-Forming
Taking interview insights as design opportunities, we created design principles to guide our design decisions. We ensured that every feature and interaction we brought addresses at least one design principle.
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Wireframes
I started wireframing the design components and establishing the components hierarchy leveraging the design principles. I then employed a view switching concept where information is presented in two levels to users. For example, depending on their roles and contributor levels, a “manager” profile level would want to know what is happening companywide if compared to an “individual Contributor” profile level.
Branding
We explored multiple visual directions to provide a fresh and on-brand look that will be a part of the company's digital ecosystem.
Navigation
We reduced 7 primary , 91 secondary, and 82 tertiary menus down to 5 primary, 10 secondary and 64 tertiary menus. I also explored various interactions and UIs, and tested on 6 users to finalize the navigation design.
Hi-Fidelity
I refined and optimized the design by introducing a 10 team-member status bar, company events calendar and more footer links to further polish the final features of the intranet and employee’s experience.
The team explored and diverged on many design concepts. Leveraging the design principles, I wanted to further determine the modules and the view would help users to maximize their productivity. Here are two examples: one is a page with configurable modules and the other is a view based module.
Wireframes
I started wireframing the design components and establishing the components hierarchy leveraging the design principles. I then employed a view switching concept where information is presented in two levels to users. For example, depending on their roles and contributor levels, a “manager” profile level would want to know what is happening companywide if compared to an “individual Contributor” profile level.
Branding
We explored multiple visual directions to provide a fresh and on-brand look that will be a part of the company's digital ecosystem.
NavigationWe reduced 7 primary , 91 secondary, and 82 tertiary menus down to 5 primary, 10 secondary and 64 tertiary menus. I also explored various interactions and UIs, and tested on 6 users to finalize the navigation design.
Explore in Hi-Fidelity
I refined and optimized the design by introducing a 10 team-member status bar, company events calendar and more footer links to further polish the final features of the intranet and employee’s experience.
This redesign now provides employees with a view-based dashboard that promotes productivity and reduces disjointed experiences.An improvement to the old practice of opening multiple tabs to access different applications, employees can now view everything in one centralized dashboard, which integrates SSO to project management, calendar, learning, expense, time-off, and IT support apps.
Consolidating a company's digital tools on one single platform was challenging at first. It took many research sessions to get to the root causes of employees' frustration with the outdated and fragmented digital experience. Our research revealed that content standardization, an employee-centric design approach, and a simple and frictionless digital experience are keys to improving productivity and building a reputation for intranet.
As a user's advocate, I see employees create bookmarks, folders, and notes to organize their workflow outside of the digital tools. To convince people to adopt a new tool, we had to engage key department stakeholders from ICs to VPs to bring employees to a design thinking process, test prototypes, and broadcast efforts to get people excited about the digital hub. We successfully work with the employees and the company to reimagine their intranet as streamlined and efficient intranet experience.
