The Outcome
Role
Lead Designer
Client
U.S. Healthcare Organisation
Services
UX Strategy, UX Research, IA, Onsite Workshops, ServiceNow
After the merger of three major healthcare systems, employees spread across the U.S. were still using the residual intranets and portals of the legacy organisations. We were brought in to design a single, unified digital workspace where everyone could find what they needed in one place.
0+
Legacy intranets & portals consolidated
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Stakeholders and frontline employees engaged in research
Context
About the project
We were consolidating multiple legacy systems - separate ServiceNow instances, HR portals, IT service portals, and a growing number of SharePoint sites - into one unified platform.
The goal was a single intranet that worked for every employee across the organisation, regardless of their role or which legacy system they'd come from.
The Challenge
Unifying the employee experience after a merger
The organisation had officially come together under one brand, but the employee experience still reflected the legacy systems and ways of working that existed before the merger.
Disconnected employee workflows
Employees had to move between disconnected systems for HR, IT support, communications, and general resources depending on which organisation they originally belonged to.
Siloed content and resources
An inherited, and growing, number of SharePoint sites and legacy portals meant employees had too many places to search for information, with no consistent way of finding what they needed.
Multiple digital identities
Different brand identities still existed across the experience, creating confusion and reinforcing separation between the newly merged organisations.
Research during active transformation
Research and validation needed to happen in parallel as we travelled onsite to interview employees, observe workflows, and continuously test concepts with real users across multiple locations.
Defining the Vision
Defining a north star before designing anything.
Early in the project, we facilitated an on-site workshop with leadership, IT, communications, and operational teams to define a shared vision for what the new employee experience needed to be.
Our North Star
Create a unified employee experience that helps staff easily access the tools, information, and support they need, while creating a shared identity under one culture and brand.
'Define Our North Star' Workshop
An onsite workshop run with leadership and operational teams to identify shared priorities and align on a direction before research began.
Our UX Approach
Structuring research, validation, and delivery in parallel
I needed to make sure we were aligned on what we were trying to solve, who we needed to speak to, and how we were going to use the time we had onsite before we got going.
We brought a semi-finalised plan to stakeholders and shaped it together across four stages, so we went into it focused on the right problems with the right people.
Defining the UX Strategy
A collaborative planning process used to align stakeholders, define research activities, and establish the principles guiding the future intranet experience.
From there, the strategy was structured into four clear phases, each with an agreed goal, key activities, and defined outcomes before anything began.
UX Strategy Framework
Framework agreed with the client before research began, with phases, goals, activities, and outcomes mapped out so everyone knew what was happening and why.
Research and design ran in parallel throughout. We were onsite across multiple locations, sometimes interviewing staff, sometimes validating concepts, while design work progressed alongside it.
An Iterative Plan
Research and design ran in parallel throughout, so we could validate ideas with real employees as the experience evolved.
Discovery and Alignment
Shaping the design through stakeholder and user collaboration
Discovery included onsite workshops, employee sessions, and audits of existing intranet tools and platforms to align teams around a shared employee experience strategy.
12+
Workshops and feedback sessions
25+
Employee sessions
HR, IT, Operations
Teams involved
Discovery Workshops
Onsite stakeholder workshops and reverse demos in Denver
Employee focus groups allowed us to hear their frustrations directly
Points of Frustration
Common pain points across the employee experience
Information Architecture
Structuring the unified employee experience
We worked closely with SMEs and stakeholders across departments to define a taxonomy with terminology and content groupings that felt natural to employees while still supporting organisational needs across the merged systems.
Early taxonomy workshop session
Navigation structure designed through stakeholder collaboration.
Usability Testing
Validating the navigation with employees
To validate the proposed taxonomy, we ran a series of Maze usability tests with employees across different departments and roles.
Participants were asked to complete common tasks like:
find HR and payroll resources
locate IT support pathways
access policies and clinical documentation
navigate to department-specific tools and content
Some Maze Results
Outcome
The Solution
Designing a scalable employee experience
Because the portal needed to support departments, content owners, and was replacing a slew of Google sites, the experience had to balance consistency with flexibility.
We created reusable templates and shared components that could scale across the organisation while still allowing teams to tailor content to their users.
Unified Employee Homepage
Scalable Department and Service Templates
Reusable templates created a scalable framework for departments and shared services across the intranet.
Employee Engagement Experiences
The giving experience supports employee-driven community initiatives.
Supporting the Organisation’s Mission
Daily reflections supported the organisation’s faith-based mission
Centralised Resource Access
Access to tools all in one place.
Centralised Resource Access
Employees could recognise colleagues through appreciation messages and digital greeting cards,
The redesigned intranet was tested with 89 employees through Maze usability testing to validate the overall experience direction. Feedback showed that users valued having HR, IT, tools, resources, and culture-focused content brought together in one place.
92% of respondents reacted positively to the updated intranet design
87% felt the new experience would improve their overall job function
Quotes from participants reinforced the importance of clear navigation, discoverability, and having HR and IT resources accessible from one place.
"I appreciate the toolkits and more business-y tasks at the top, with the "fluffier" stuff at the bottom of the page. The Mega Menu will go a long way in improving organization."
– Participant “230739450”
"Easy access to Benefits and payroll information, and Latest news in policies or notices of events will be useful as I don't get time to find this usually"
– Participant “230942226”
"I like that more topics have been incorporated into this one site and that the appearance is more streamlined. I think it will work well."
– Participant “23016598”