The Challenge

In the summer of 2015, a grass-roots initiative began at Essendant to replace the core of the corporate intranet, with a goal of launching the Essendant brand internally and supporting Essendant's newly-established core value, "One Team."  

The old intranet needed to be replaced for technical and security reasons, and we used this as an opportunity to redefine Essendant's corporate culture. It was also an opportunity to test working under Agile principles, with an emphasis on progress over perfection.

I joined a team consisting of representatives from Marketing, Human Resources, IT, and Project Management, led requirements analysis, and produced initial wireframes for the project, which I transitioned to my growing UX team for refinement and testing. Eventually, I re-joined the team to produce the final graphic design treatment for the new site based on the emerging Essendant brand guidelines.

Assessing and Restructuring Content

To begin, I assessed the content and functionality that was available via the existing intranet, which comprised a static, outdated custom interface, a SharePoint landing page, and Essendant's reseller portal, Solutions Central, and which provided an experience that was both disjointed and redundant. With input from the team and content owners, I determined that the new intranet would include very limited content that was relevant to all associates across all businesses, plus links to all SharePoint sites and applications used by associates, and that it would be customizable to ensure ease and efficiency of use. Then, the team and I worked toward a prototype to test with associates before delivering a final product.

Final UX and Graphic Design Treatment

Following testing, we simplified the Home page, consolidated and simplified customization options and access to other applications, and redesigned the News page and footer. We also gave the site a new graphic design treatment that was more aligned with Essendant's new brand guidelines.