The challenge

Citrix had two Sharepoint intranets serving different business units that required their own sign in. It was not possible search for content across both sites at one time. Content was outdated and out of control after years of organic growth and lack of governance. Search results were often irrelevant. Navigating to content was unintuitive and took several clicks. The project would require working with every business across the company.

The goals

  • Single sign on (SSO) for entire company
  • Decrease time and effort to locate relevant content
  • Decrease support calls to reduce operating costs
  • Increase engagement with corporate communications
  • Raise employee sentiment about their intranet experience

Hypothesis

Reduce, reorganize, leverage search

To achieve our goals we would need to: eliminate non-essential content and rewrite the what remains, restructure the IA, and build a search-centric experience. With the reduction of content and focus on search we could shift behavior away from inefficient hierarchal navigation and get employees back to work faster and more satisfied.

User research

Conducted more than two dozen employee interviews across the company before beginning strategy or design work. Ran multiple card sorts to inform site IA. Performed and analyzed usability testing throughout the project. Implemented NPS after launch to gauge satisfaction and gather additional insights.

Process

Content out, mobile first, design for emotions

Advocated and drove a content out, mobile first approach. Develped and employed emotion-driven goals as part of process. Made UX part of the content strategy and creation process. Worked with designers, and developers employing LeanUX methods within an Agile environment.

Homepage redesign

Before

A link farm with 85 links, not counting blog posts or items in drop-down menus. Search use is less than 3%.

After

5 links to key content sections. Main menu hidden within off-canvas nav. Search use increased 300%.

Content page redesign

Before

Sidebar nav was getting little use. Content was dense and over-written. Page was difficult to visually scan.

After

Accordions allowed for more content without clutter. In-context links drove more interaction.

Predictive search & app launcher

  • Added predictive search that was not available on previous intranet
  • We added the ability to launch third-party sites from predictive results listing
  • Content optimization made it possible to return the most relevant results

The results

  • On-site search increased 300%

  • Page views increased 224% while time on site dropped 34% – employees found more content in less time and reported it was more relevant and easier to find

  • Employee satisfaction (via NPS survey) went from 0 to 29 – 2,900% improvement. Most comments referred to ease of use and relevance

  • See Backstage (Support section) for more details and results

  • Honorable mention in the 2014 Best Intranets by Nielsen/Norman Group (NNg)