UX UI DESIGN
Elevating Workplace Connectivity with a Seamless Intranet Portal
PRODUCT ROADMAPPING
UX UI DESIGN
RAPID ITERATIONS
Role
Senior UX/UI Designer
Deliverables
Site Mapping
Wireframes
Mockups
User Surveys
Interviews & Focus Groups
Taxonomy
Team
Engagement Manager
Business Process Consultants
Solution Architects
Intermediate UX UI Designer
Duration
1.5 years
(multiple sprints)
Tools
Figma
Maze
Table of Contents
HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED
Summary
Client
Technology Company
Mission
This tech company needed a centralized, user-friendly intranet portal to streamline access to essential company resources, services, and communications. The goal was to unify multiple fragmented platforms into a single, intuitive experience that improves efficiency, enhances employee engagement, and simplifies workflows.
My Contribution
As the Senior UX UI Designer, I led user research, defining personas, workflows, and taxonomy to align with business needs. I provided mentorship to the intermediate UX UI Designer while we created wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs, balancing customization with maintainability while ensuring accessibility and usability. Collaborating closely with stakeholders, developers, and leadership, I drove alignment, facilitated design reviews, and optimized the portal for engagement and efficiency. Post-launch, I leveraged UX analytics and feedback to refine the experience, ensuring long-term scalability and innovation.
COOL! BUT WAS IT SUCCESSFUL?
Measurable Impact
2025 Best Employee Portal
Recognized as a top-performing portal for its UX, usability, and impact on workplace efficiency.
68% Increased User Adoption
Significant rise in engagement, proving the portal’s success in streamlining workflows and enhancing the user experience
(within first 6 months).
3000+ Users
Empowering thousands of employees with seamless access to essential tools, resources, and self-service capabilities.
THINGS WILL GO WRONG, PLAN FOR IT.
The Challenge
Stakeholder Alignment
Engaging busy internal teams and leadership to align on portal vision and requirements required structured governance and dedicated collaboration.
Changing Resources and Prioritization
The intranet portal was often deprioritized in favour of client-facing work. This led to resource shifts, with key contributors being pulled onto other projects, causing delays and halting momentum. Maintaining consistency and progress despite these challenges required strong documentation, clear workflows, and governance.
Scalability & Flexibility
The new portal needed to consolidate multiple services, yet remain adaptable for future growth, integrations, and evolving business needs.
Fragmented Systems & Data Integration
The previous portal was spread across multiple platforms, making navigation inefficient. The new portal needed to unify services and integrate real-time data from multiple sources for seamless access to HR, finance, and project insights.
PROCESS & APPROACH
Getting Started
The first step was to get acquainted with the team’s vision and the plans they had for the product. The old internal website was outdated and under-utilized. This new opportunity allowed us to create a better experience while also integrating multiple departments and features. Getting alignment before starting any design work was crucial.
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To tackle this complexity, we invested heavily in user research to understand not only the end users but also the departments whose content would live in the portal. Since multiple people were responsible for content governance, we needed to ensure that their requirements were considered and that the portal structure would support their needs effectively.
The Process
User Research & Discovery
Conducted in-depth user interviews, focus groups, and surveys to identify pain points and opportunities.
Personas, User Journeys
& Site Mapping
Developed detailed user personas and mapped workflows to optimize navigation.
Taxonomy
Conducted workshop sessions with key stakeholders to categorize navigation to 2000+ catalog items.
Wireframes, Mockups & Prototyping
Built Wireframes and Interactive Mockups based on analysis findings from UX research. Presented designs to various stakeholder groups and end users for iterative feedback sessions.
Usability Testing
Conducted multiple rounds of testing and design iterations with real users to refine interactions and accessibility.
Implementation & Rollout
Designed a scalable and maintainable solution. Leveraged OCM - letting users know what was changing and when it was happening. Included the users in this process by having "name that portal" contests.
Iterative Improvements
Implemented feedback-driven enhancements post-launch to continuously optimize the portal.
USER & BUSINESS INSIGHTS
Understanding
The Old Portal
Before designing the new system, we first needed to understand what was and wasn’t working in the old one.
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We started by creating a site map of all existing content, identifying what needed to stay and what was outdated or unnecessary.
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Next, we conducted a usability assessment, looking at consistency, design heuristics, and common pain points. We reviewed past user feedback and analytics, which revealed low engagement and frustration among employees.
With these insights, we created a research plan to guide user interviews, ensuring we captured the needs of both employees and the teams responsible for content. This structured approach helped us design a portal that truly met user needs while improving efficiency and usability.
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*Note these are scrubbed recreations of their old system. No data or content was pulled from the original client.
User Research
At the heart of any great product are the people who use it. To ensure the new portal truly met employee needs, we engaged with as many users as possible to understand their experiences.
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We conducted 20+ user interviews with key stakeholders and executives, gaining insight into business priorities and user frustrations.
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We led focus group sessions with multiple departments, including HR, IT, Finance, Sales, Services, Internal University, Marketing, and Branding, to understand different teams' needs and workflows.
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To gather broader input, we hosted user surveys with 60+ participants, collecting valuable data on how employees interact with the portal.​
User Personas and Mapping
From this research, we developed user personas and journeys. We identified key tasks employees needed the portal for, and determined which features needed improvement, removal, or addition. We then prioritized these findings to guide the portal’s redesign, ensuring a user-friendly, efficient, and engaging experience.
Taxonomy, Structure and Organization
To ensure employees could easily find what they needed, we focused on creating a clear and intuitive taxonomy. This structured approach eliminated confusion, improved search functionality, and ensured the portal could grow without becoming cluttered.
Our process involved:
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Auditing Existing Content. We mapped out all current pages and categorized them based on function and department.
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Stakeholder Input. We collaborated with different teams to understand how they organize and access information.
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User-Centered Labeling. We tested different terminology to ensure categories were meaningful and easy to navigate.
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Defining Hierarchies. We structured the portal with top-level categories, subcategories, and cross-linked content for better findability.
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Iterative Testing. We refined the taxonomy based on usability feedback to reduce friction in navigation.​
STARTING TO COME TOGETHER
Wireframes
Once we had a structure in place, we moved onto wireframes where we explored how each screen would be laid out. This allowed us to quickly sketch out different user flows without having to spend too much time thinking about visual design of those screens.
The main focus during the initial stages was making sure all the departments had their own page, and personalizing home page widgets based on user personas, ensuring employees saw the most relevant tools and information. This laid the foundation for further expansion and paved the way for introduction of additional tools.
Side Note
This phase proved to be one of the most challenging due to shifting project priorities. With client projects taking precedence, the internal portal was repeatedly put on the back burner and restarted multiple times. This led to resource shifts, with key contributors being pulled onto other initiatives, causing delays and disrupting momentum.
Despite these challenges, we successfully created a wireframe, a detailed "blueprint" of the new portal, ensuring we had a solid foundation to build upon once the project regained focus.
WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME?
The Solution
A unified, scalable, and user-centric portal successfully streamlined employee access to essential services, knowledge, and tools. With a lot content to organize, we leaned into widgets to section content to make things easier to find and make tasks easier to complete. Key features include:​
Consolidated Services
Unified HR, IT, finance, and training into a single access point.
Self Service & Automation
Reduced support requests by empowering employees with self-help tools and automated workflows.
Personalized Dashboards
Tailored views for employees based on role, department, and needs.
AI-Enhanced Search
Predictive recommendations based on user needs improve content discovery.
Real Time Data Acess
Integrated with other systems for up-to-date employee and project insights.
Note: These are just a few examples of the product. Reach out to see more!
A LOOK BACK
Lessons Learned
What I learned over the course of this project.
1. Consistency Requires a Strong Design System
Managing a team of intermediate designers while dealing with frequent off-boarding made maintaining consistency a major challenge. A well-documented design system is essential. It ensures continuity, keeps designs aligned, and allows new team members to onboard quickly without disrupting the project’s visual and functional coherence.
2. Internal Projects Need Advocacy
Unlike client-facing initiatives, internal projects don’t automatically inspire excitement. Many stakeholders saw this as a lower priority, making it harder to keep engagement high. The key takeaway? Rally the troops! Get people invested by showing them the impact, making the work feel valuable, and building momentum with previews of what’s coming. When people see the vision, they’re more likely to stay engaged.
A LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Next Steps
Beyond this engagement, here is where I think there is an opportunity to expand on for the future.
1. The Future Is AI
Enhance AI capabilities with improved automation for ticketing, approvals, and content recommendations in search.
2. Full Circle Experiece
Expand onboarding & offboarding tools for a more seamless employee lifecycle experience.
3. Measure Long-term Impact
Refine analytics tracking to measure long-term engagement and business impact.
COOL THINGS
