Building a Better Platform for Knowledge Sharing
Recommendations based on research increased use of an internal knowledge base.
In a typical “cobbler’s children have no shoes” scenario, a digital agency's intranet had been neglected for some time. When the intranet was migrated to a new and more robust CMS, the UX leadership decided it was time for a cleanup. But where to start?
Along with a couple of my UX colleagues, I was asked to assess what specifically needed to be fixed, and make recommendations that would lead to a vibrant, useful online space for learning and collaboration. We began with research, including a content inventory, heuristic assessment, and survey.
We discovered that, although the original intent had been to populate the intranet with a broad range of topics and deep, detailed information on best practices, it had never been completely fleshed out. It seemed that the initial scope was too large and impossible to maintain, and disuse had led to abandonment. Much of the content was outdated. Practitioners were disillusioned with it and found other ways to share tools, resources and best practices.
The surveys did, however, surface an interest in a centralized online space for tools, resources, and collaboration. Because UX team members were spread out geographically in offices across the country, there was frustration over “reinventing the wheel” when tools and resources created in one office weren’t visible or readily accessible to practitioners in other offices.
We followed up the initial research with analytics, interviews, and card sorts. Based on this input, we came up with recommendations to streamline the IA (e.g. reduce sixteen L1 categories to four), reduce the scope to key content areas, and implement simpler strategies for maintenance and governance. We presented our findings and recommendations to the UX leadership, and are confident that these recommendations, when implemented, will improve the user experience for the Roundarch Isobar UX community, and result in a vibrant, useful online space for learning and collaboration, as requested.
Pre-Existing Intranet Hub Page
Presentation with Research Findings and Recommendations
