Case Studies
Intranet Redesign
The client/application:
User research, card sorting, and user testing to support this real estate client's redesign of their intranet site. The site not only serves as a home for various marketing and property listing tools, but also as a hub for education programs and company information that employees use every day.
The problem / situation:
Usability inSite was asked to step in during the requirements phase to develop a plan to help this client get more of their users involved in the process of redesigning and scoping the re-design of their internal site. Users felt that the existing site provided fantastic tools, but that many of them were difficult to find.
The plan:
Usability inSite provided this client with a 3-tiered plan to help them determine what direction to take in the redesign of their intranet site. The focus was to get as much user input as possible early in the process, and then to continue to allow users to validate design ideas as the design process unfolded. The three tiers of the project were:
Telephone interviews with agents, brokers, and office support staff (from secretaries to customer service representatives), to determine their overall level of comfort with computers and the web, and to give them a chance to recount their experiences with the existing site. Participants would be asked to identify the features they liked best, recount their current usage patterns and frustrations, and to speculate about what they would like to see go into the next design of the site.
Online Card Sorting with the same user groups, to get an idea of how the intranet site’s users organized and categorized the different features and the wealth of information available on the site.
Prototype usability testing with an early version of the redesign at the company’s annual conference. Users were again given a chance to voice their feedback and provide insight into the direction of the new site as it was being designed.
The delivery:
Usability inSite provided user feedback to the design team at various points throughout the process. Informal results were supplied during the user research and usability activities in the form of verbal and e-mail updates to the team, while a more formal communication of results was provided after the completion of each user feedback activity. Deliverables included:
Interviews report. This report provided a prioritized list of the things on the site that participants said they had problems with. It also provided a summary of the discussions with each user group conducted during the user interviews. We identified major user behaviors like information searching, provided feedback on the most used functions, and offered a prioritized list of participant-reported problems with the site. We also communicated the results of a labeling exercise, in which participants shared their understanding of some proposed content labels.
Site Map and explanation. The card sorting exercise produced a map of how participants grouped the labels associated with content on the intranet, whether it was marketing tools or training information. This map is a view of how users understood the relationships between the content on the site. The client also received a report explaining the strength of the relationships and recommendations for creating a new information architecture for the site.
Prototype Test report. This report consisted of a summary of participant’s responses and experiences attempting common tasks on the prototype redesigned intranet site. Screenshots and callouts identify areas of the site with positives, negatives, and recommendations listed throughout.
The results:
The redesign of the site is ongoing, but the response from affiliate brokers and agents has been overwhelmingly positive. Many are excited about getting the chance to improve a tool that so many of them rely on. Initial designs have changed the intranet site from an information source and hodge-podge of tools into a portal of personal marketing data, integrated marketing and sales tools, and company training and information.