Overview
2 departments, 1 goal. Charles Schwab’s Human Resources Technology (HRT) and Strategy & Business Management (SBM) departments did not have centralized intranet sites. Their information was scattered and difficult to navigate. I was in charge of aligning with stakeholders to understand their content and help them achieve their goal of departmental homepages that were simple to navigate.
Timeline & Status
2 Quarters, Launched Q1, 2021
My role
UX Designer & Researcher - Interviewer, Workshop Leader, Visual Designer, Lead Prototyper
Team
1 Manager
1 Team Lead
1 UX Developer
1 UX Designer/Researcher- Me!
Discovery Phase - Clarifying Stakeholder Needs
Content Hierarchy
I faced a problem when I found that my stakeholders had many interconnected web pages with lots of content. They couldn't clearly explain what they wanted users to focus on or in what order. My task was to help them decide what should be on the homepage and what could be placed deeper in the site's structure.
Before
After
Stakeholder Interviews
To understand people's content needs, I made a list of questions and interviewed 12 Schwabbies. By the eighth interview, I noticed I was hearing repeated information, indicating I had reached an informational plateau.
Information Architecture
I compiled a spreadsheet containing over 500 lines of content from the previous interviews. Next, I aimed to strategically organize the content on a webpage. To achieve this, I conducted dot-voting sessions with the previous interview participants. Through this workshop, I gained insights into the overall content priorities for the site's layout.
Design Challenge - Transitioning to New SharePoint Version
At this point in the project, I encountered a challenge. Our organization was transitioning to a new version of SharePoint, leaving me unsure about the design components of the new system. To familiarize myself with the new features, I browsed Microsoft SharePoint's homepage for images showcasing them. I captured screenshots of each component and categorized them by type on an online whiteboard. Leveraging these screenshots, I pieced together a prototype site based on previous content feedback and component capabilities.
Final Designs
After eight rounds of iteration with stakeholders using approximately three wireframe mockups per round, we arrived at the final designs for both the HRT and SBM departments.
HR Technology Site
Lessons Learned - How can we improve? What can we learn for next time?
Design Library Creation
The main lesson learned was that our team's previous approach to SharePoint design was outdated. The design team proposed designs to the developers that weren't feasible with the new SharePoint components and platform. We had to undergo additional rounds of cross-functional team ideation just to develop viable solutions. To address this challenge, I created a design library containing all the new SharePoint components.
