Information Architecture | Research | Project Management
Creating an Intuitive Intranet Platform for Cross Functional Teams that Increased Site Visits by 80%
ATPCO is the airline industry's primary source for airline merchandising and pricing data. Whether it’s branded fares, premium cabin experiences, or ancillary services, Routehappy is the key to enhancing airline offers and delivering a best-in-class visual shopping experience. This project included an overhaul of the Retailing SharePoint page and document repository to make it more intuitive and user-friendly for not just the Routehappy Product team, but the cross-functional teams that work closely with them.
Project Overview
ROLE
Operations & Knowledge Exchange Intern (Sole Designer and Researcher)
CHALLENGES
There is no single source of truth. Information is scattered across multiple platforms and can be difficult to find, users are not using (and in some cases don't know about) the existing SharePoint page, and documents are being shared primarily in Microsoft Teams chats.
DURATION
January 2024 - June 2024
SCOPE
SOLUTION
Design an intuitive, central location for information sharing using out-of-the-box SharePoint features to provide a single source of truth and create a central document repository including a data management plan that can be used by the cross-functional teams who interact with Routehappy.
Research, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Operations, Project Management
TOOLS
SharePoint, Miro, Jira, Aha!, Microsoft Teams
Project Goals
Business Goal
Organize content and improve information sharing
Business Goal
Provide a single
source of truth
User Goal
Stay up to date on all things Routehappy
Impact
The migration for the document repository began on Tuesday, June 28, 2024, and launch of the new Routehappy SharePoint site occurred on Monday, June 3, 2024.
69%
Unique Site Viewers Increased by
When compared to the previous SharePoint site over the last 30 days
80%
Site Visits Increased by
When compared to the previous SharePoint site within the first 30 days
The Final Design
A Snapshot of All Things Routehappy
The home page was designed to provide users with a quick overview of the latest Routehappy product information. This includes a rotating news banner that features upcoming events, monthly newsletters, and product updates.
Quick links are visible above the fold and a button is prominently displayed to allow users to explore the full offering. Key items like the roadmap, intake reports, and the monthly release schedules are also available on the home page.
Per requests from users, the PTO calendar is also featured on the home page for a quick glance at teammates' availability.
Above the homepage is a navigation bar that will allow users to easily transition to other pages on the site including the document repository, cross-functional team pages, and product resources such as an organizational diagram.
Socialize Content and Provide Transparency Across Teams
Each of the cross-functional teams who work with Routehappy were provided with a page under "product overview". Each page is built around basic definitions, links to key documents and resources affiliated with the team, and a who's who section that includes each team member's name, job title, photo, and a short bio.
Each page is customized, and some teams have provided additional information, such as the engineering practices accordion (shown here) or monthly content team newsletter.
Resources at Your Fingertips
One of the most requested features for the new SharePoint site was to provide definitions of Routehappy. Through the quick links page, users can easily scan resource links by type including product links, definitions, document libraries, and training resources.
Document Repository
In addition to redesigning the Retailing SharePoint site, I was responsible for developing a taxonomy and overall hierarchy for the Routehappy Document Repository. While SharePoint supports both taxonomies and folksonomies, I proposed we establish a managed taxonomy. A managed taxonomy is good for team specific data (like the Routehappy document repository) because it provides consistent use of metadata, improved content discoverability, and increased flexibility. Based on the research that I conducted, I established metadata tags in categories including document type (e.g. report, meeting notes, etc.), content key-words, associated team, and privacy status. 1,956 files were migrated to the new SharePoint document repository and subsequently tagged through this project.
My Process
ATPCO, Routehappy, and the Retailing SharePoint page
I began this project by getting to know the company and Routehappy product through review of the external website, intranet, and internal training videos. After gaining a basic understanding, I evaluated the former SharePoint site.
Evaluation of Retailing SharePoint
The Retailing SharePoint consists of a homepage and document repository. Quick links appear at the top of the page, but by default are hidden within an accordion making it difficult to scan.
The first time I visited the site, I scrolled past without noticing.
There is a lot of information presented on the home page, making it difficult to locate specific items if users do not know where to look. ​Additionally, there is redundancy in folder labeling in the document repository, as well as information hidden across numerous accordions.
Understanding Users
I completed discovery calls with 34 people across 12 teams to understand user pain points, identify most commonly accessed resources, and evaluate user opinions of the existing Retailing SharePoint site. These calls took place in small groups of individuals with similar roles. Users could provide insight into the type of information needed and where they seek it, their perspective of the current Retailing home page, their document sharing habits, and usefulness of the current document repository hierarchy. You can view my discovery call script here.
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I created a Miro Board to organize findings from each discovery call, look for insights, and draw conclusions based on user feedback. During this process, I extracted insights using a heatmap; those insights were later used to draw conclusions about user goals and pain points.
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Pain Points
1
No one source of truth
2
Information is available in many locations without guidance for where to look
3
Roadmap UI isn’t clear to those outside of product
4
Everyone has a different definition of Routehappy
5
Information is not kept up to date
Key Features Requested
1
Basic information about the product (definitions, etc.)
4
Customer information
2
New launches and items in progress
5
Visible quick links
3
People/ roles and how they interact with each other
6
Up to date Roadmap and KPI metrics
Prioritization
After extracting insights and drawing conclusions, I presented the findings and worked with the Senior Product Manager and Senior Project Manager to prioritize our action items into low, medium, and high priority categories.
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Project Outline & Management
Once I understood what was needed to execute this project, I developed a project management plan. I used Jira to plan, track, and organize tasks, which smoothly integrated into the Routehappy product roadmap in Aha!.
Project Plan
Complete discovery calls with the following groups: Product Team (APMs and BAs), Content Creation Team, Sales Excellence, Accounts, Marketing / Strategy, Advanced Customer Support & Training Team, Distribution Team & Standards, Development Team
1.
2.
After each discovery call, organize collected feedback in Miro
3.
During discovery calls, organize existing folders/documents, ensure all the links are active and in use, and Dashboards are relevant and working as intended
4.
After all discovery calls, analyze feedback for trends and present findings
5.
Evaluate whether stakeholders needs from Retailing can be addressed via SharePoint site
6.
Prioritize trends into actionable items that should be integrated into the project immediately (short-term), items that could be integrated into the project eventually (long-term), and items that will not be integrated into the project at this time
7.
Overhaul the Retailing SharePoint site with the learnings
8.
Evaluate the new Retailing SharePoint site through user testing and make additional modifications as time allows
Information Architecture
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Using the insights and conclusions from discovery calls, I created a site map to help outline the SharePoint site and identify opportunities for content optimization. After several iterations, we decided on an organization system that would bring together resources from cross-functional teams.
To help visualize where content would live, I created bubbles next to each item on the site map.
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Sketching
Crazy 8's
To explore directions to take the SharePoint redesign, I conducted a Crazy 8’s exercise. This allowed me to generate many ideas quickly and efficiently. After presenting these ideas, I was provided with a preferred design and gave feedback, which was integrated as shown below.
Testing the Design
Small Groups & 1:1 Conversations
Once an initial draft was created in the sandbox environment, I scheduled two focus groups and three 1:1 conversations with individuals from the Product, Content Creation, and Operations teams to gather feedback. Each sticky note color in the below graphic represents feedback from a different user.
Key Takeaways
The new SharePoint site is easy to navigate and better organized than the former SharePoint site
Valuable information like the goals and KPIs should be broken away from the Product Strategy page
Home page real estate is being taken up by features that users believe are less valuable
Users want to see metrics on the site, such as those found in Grafana
Reflections
Gather more 1:1 feedback through usability testing
For much of the user research, I gathered user input through focus groups hosted in Teams. This proved successful for early research, as users were able to share their expectations for the SharePoint site, and their general experience with information sharing related to Routehappy. However, for the second round of feedback the focus group model proved to be less effective. Due to busy schedules, it was extremely difficult to schedule group calls, leading to several individuals being unable to join, requiring 1:1 feedback sessions. Additionally, since users were not actually completing tasks, the group discussions did not show usability problems that exist with the SharePoint site. Another limitation of focus groups is the possibility of group-think. I observed that users who participated in the group calls provided less feedback overall than those I spoke with individually. In the future, I plan to include moderated usability testing or other 1:1 research techniques to allow users to show usability problems rather than tell what they believe will improve the site or product.
Observer bias
As the sole designer and researcher for this project, I was responsible for conducting focus group calls, taking notes, and analyzing research. While I tried my best to prevent observer bias from infiltrating this study, the lack of additional individual(s) assisting with the research opened the opportunity for biases. To prevent bias, I followed many of the suggestions offered by the Nielson Norman Group including easing people into testing through small talk and introductions, assuring participants that their individual responses would not be shared outside of the study, and explaining that the study is meant to test the design, not the participants (there are no wrong answers!). In the future, I hope to have an additional team member assist with user research to further eliminate observer bias in the study.
Inclusion of additional cross-functional teams in later user testing
For the second iteration of testing, I met with 11 individuals who work in Product Management, Product Operations, and Content Creation. Due to conflicting schedules and limited availability from our cross-functional teams, individuals from outside the Product team were not included in the second round of research. While the feedback received from the Product team was very valuable, it would have benefitted the project to hear from individuals representing other teams such as Sales or Marketing.
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