Intel Blueprint Portal
One-Stop Shop for Internal Resources
and Protocols
I worked in a team of 4 (lead strategist, lead communications director, 2 product designers) to rethink and transform Intel internal resource portal experience. This portal, owned by the Intel Corporate Services Team, plays a key role in housing and distributing information that defines and regulates Intel's global workplace operations.
Our team delivered research findings, hi-fi mockups, prototypes, and detailed documentation for the portal for Intel's internal team to develop and integrate into their current existing intranet eco-system.
Role:
Product Designer (1 of 2)
Timeline:
Aug 2020 - Feb 2021 (6 months)
Tools:
Adobe XD, Miro, Usertesting.com
Research
Through a series of stakeholder interviews (users and administrators), our team got Intel's Corporate Services Team to walk through their current portal site (Intel Blue & C-Docs) and observe their current usage patterns. The following pain points were uncovered in the process:
Lack of Centralized Source of Information and Identity
Information demanded by stakeholders is distributed into multiple different intranet page locations without a centralized identity or theme. This makes it difficult for users to navigate towards the desired document. Even members within the Corporate Services Team found it challenging to locate where the resources are housed at.
All pages below are managed by Intel's Corporate Services, each having its own page and layouts of resource links.
“We have like more than 3 different intranet sites now. Content management and consistency is like the Wild Wild West back there.”
- Head of Corporate Services
Lack of Information and Visual Hierarchy
The C-docs repository platform offers no real classification of the information it houses. Everything is presented in a visually similar running lists of text links. The lack of hierarchy and organization of information reduces overall navigability of the platform. File names are dictated by C-docs system, resulting in file names that makes sense to the system but not the users.
Corporate services staff are required to serve as informational concierges
As C-docs is relatively unnavigable by untrained persons, corporate service staff have to serve as the concierge of internal resources and protocols. Staff members address these requests via email attached with the desired C-Doc link. This burdens staff with a barrage of information requests and reduces their time for their actual work like strategy and planning.
"It is less painful to just link people the information they need instead of teaching them how to access C-docs and find the information themselves."
- Corporate Service Staff
"My people are unfortunately tasked with redirecting people to the right information. I need them to focus on the real work instead of being cyber traffic controllers."
- Head of Corporate Services
Different Levels of Security Access
Not all information within C-docs are accessible by contractors and consultants. Some information are to be accessed by internal departments like HR, IT and Corporate services. Others content are open to all Intel staff but not to external contractors. The current C-docs platform does not have an in-built method to filter informational access via security clearances.
Document version control and update
C-docs does an amazing job tracking different versions of the documents, however, many end users of the information retrieved are unaware when the information is updated. Users often end up using outdated standards/protocols. This happens as end users are not notified when documents are updated unless someone from corporate services informs them.
"I just download the document and use that forever. It is saved on my desktop. It was only 2 years later that I realized my document was outdated."
- Contractor
Lack of Short Cuts for Advanced Users
Individuals familiar with the C-Docs eco-systems got to the desired page in less than 20 seconds. However, these veteran users also found the site's navigation to be more indirect with unnecessary introduction content. These users suggested having a "shortcut" to allow veteran users like them to navigate to their desired resources as soon as possible.
"There is a lot going on before the real content. I need an option where I can just go to what I want on the first page or with less clicks and scrolls?"
- Seasoned Intel Contractor
Framing the Problem
The target of this project was to design a platform that effectively allows end-users to access the information they need without the guidance of staff members. Issues like version control and user security clearances were additional layers of complexity that needed to be woven into the solution without complicating the overall user experience.
How might we create a controlled-access one-stop shop resource portal where users can get the desired information without active guidance?
Key Requirements
- Site should have different levels of information disclosure based on user's security clearance
- Information needs to embody intuitive classification and hierarchy
- Look and feel of site should adhere to Intel's new design guidelines
- Documents should be easy to download by users and easy to upload by corporate services
- Users that download the document should receive notifications if a new version of the document is available
- Minimize number of clicks required to navigate to desired content
Crafting Personas and User Flows
Reflecting on the research insight and key product requirements, the team started crafting user personas that best represent the different use cases for the internal resource platform. We were cognizant of how this platform has to service content owners (people that maintain and upload information) and content consumers (people that consume the information).
Defining Information Architecture
Content Strategy Workshop
With the personas and user flows established, our team took the first pass at organizing the overall information of the site. This was done through a 2.5-hour workshop with the client that effectively reclassified the information on C-Docs into different categories through an extensive card sorting exercise.
Considering the broad base of audiences with differing levels of site familiarity, we constantly reminded Intel stakeholders of the site's external understandability.
Additionally, with the idea of minimizing the number of clicks required to arrive at content, we opted for more shallow information architecture with one deep section that contained office design specifications.
Wireframing the Concept
With the information architecture, we created a series of wireframes. The wireframes used the fundamental Intel web design guidelines featuring parallax content blades. As the site was to be hosted on Microsoft Sharepoint, we explored key existing elements within the Sharepoint ecosystem that we would utilized to minimize custom development efforts. We focused on two main pages during this effort, the home page and the resource page.
Home Page
The home page was structured with a series of onboarding information curated by the Corporate Services Team. This allowed users to have a sense of the site and what kind of information it could entail.
Resource Page
We created a resource page that could be flexed with additional blades/tabs when there is additional content. The page also contained a doc preview widget to give users an opportunity to preview the document prior to downloading it.
User Testing
With the wireframes, we interviewed users as they navigate through the prototype. The selection of users ranged from Intel contractors familiar with Intel's corporate services to Intel contractors that are new and unacquainted.
New users reacted to the designs positively. The individuals liked the classification and how it gave more structure to an otherwise previously unnavigable
"I like how it guides me towards the document. The document preview and contact person info are very helpful. This gives me a better sense of what kind of document I am looking into and who to call if I have issues."
- New Intel Contractor
Internal Intel employees found the site pandered too much towards providing specific information. These employees were not interested in the specifics of the efforts, but instead want to know what are the general ideas behind each effort.
"This is a lot of information I don't really need to know. I just want to know the overall idea? The specifics are great if I ever need them."
- Intel Employee
Final Deliverable
Post-user testing, the wireframes were re-examined and pages were based on user feedback. Additionally, we layered in the look and feel elements of the site based on Intel's branding guidelines and palette.
Home Page
The home page was structured with a series of additional onboarding information curated by the Corporate Services Team. This information was composed of existing documentation that summarizes the key intents and plans of Intel's Corporate Services team. This content tweak allowed interested employees to have a good overview of the site without overloading them with specifics.
Nav-Bar Short Cut
The nav-bar allowed for more experienced users to access the desired sections directly without scrolling through the introductory content. Giving veteran users the navigational short cut they need.
Section Page and Resource Update Log
In order to alert users visiting the site about the latest changes, we added a changelog on each of the overall sections that indicate which are the latest document changes in their respective sections.
Scalable Resource Pages
We created a system of resource pages that could be flexed via additional tabs or the splitting of blades into columns when there is additional content. Blades can also be stacked if preferred. Aesthetically, we recommended the use of relevant imagery placement in order to break up the relatively word-heavy content.
Impact + Reflection
The design specs were delivered to Intel in early Q1 2021. Intel will be developing the sites in-house and rolling them out to the intranet ecosystem at the end of Q2 2021. This portal unifies the disparate digital presence of Intel Corporate Services and gives the content authors and content consumers a clearer and cleaner way to review and track documentation when collaborating on projects and crafting operational policies.
Personally, it was an honor to work with a client like Intel. We got to encounter the sheer amount of content regulated by the internal department at Intel along with its various challenges and pain points. Participants were also very open and willing to share their experiences, giving us excellent first-hand user research insights that we could effectively translate into the design. I learned about the criticality of effective information architecture planning and UI tools we can employ to alleviate content overload.
Thank you to the Intel Portal Team (Kati, Doug, and Cat!), we never failed to deliver despite the challenges and curve balls we encountered during the project! I would also like to thank the Intel Corporate Services team for letting us design and rethink their intranet interface and user experience!
