Overview
Customer Experience Design (CXD) designers didn't have a central place to access all the things they needed to be successful. Our leadership team decided we needed to create a hub for resources (specifically for resource-sharing and onboarding).
I was brought on to create content to help guide colleagues, hiring managers, and new hires quickly find the resources they need.
My Role
• Content strategist
• User researcher
• UX writer
• User researcher
• UX writer
I also collaborated with two visual designers who produced all visual aspects, including layouts, wireframes, typographic elements, and photography.
Tools I used
• Excel: for content audits and IA work
• Word: for drafting content and gathering edits
• Sketch: for adding draft content in lo-fi wireframes
• Mural: for documenting and synthesizing research findings
• Otter: for recording user interviews
• Teams: for cross-team communication
• Platform: SharePoint
• Word: for drafting content and gathering edits
• Sketch: for adding draft content in lo-fi wireframes
• Mural: for documenting and synthesizing research findings
• Otter: for recording user interviews
• Teams: for cross-team communication
• Platform: SharePoint
Herding (resource) cats
Our team's resources were scattered, incomplete, and outdated.
I took a content audit of the most recent assets to understand what we had, what we were missing, and what needed to be updated.
From there, I:
• Conducted designer interviews to understand their sentiments, what resources they reached for the most, and what resources they wished they had access to
• Conducted interviews with colleagues and partners outside CXD, to learn what they look for when using our site
• Synthesized these findings via affinity mapping
• Created a preliminary IA
• Created rough sketches to begin mapping out what could go on each page
• Created an updated catalog of all the site assets
• Conducted designer interviews to understand their sentiments, what resources they reached for the most, and what resources they wished they had access to
• Conducted interviews with colleagues and partners outside CXD, to learn what they look for when using our site
• Synthesized these findings via affinity mapping
• Created a preliminary IA
• Created rough sketches to begin mapping out what could go on each page
• Created an updated catalog of all the site assets
Roadblocks
Fannie Mae is a Microsoft shop, so the company standard for intranets is SharePoint.
The tool is great for content creators who want a drag and drop experience but doesn't offer the same flexibility that other content management systems do. We ran into design issues with imagery and content block sizing, pre-set SharePoint components, and discoverability with SharePoint SEO.
Ultimately, we saw SharePoint's limitations as a blessing in disguise. I looked at these guard rails similar to specifications a stakeholder would need and designed around them.
The outcome
We now have a live, design team SharePoint site!
I crafted all content for:
• The homepage
• All onboarding page content
• All microcopy, including CTAs, headers, and beyond
• Hiring manager, new hire, and start partner experiences
• Communities of practice pages
• Our design process
• Our team
I crafted all content for:
• The homepage
• All onboarding page content
• All microcopy, including CTAs, headers, and beyond
• Hiring manager, new hire, and start partner experiences
• Communities of practice pages
• Our design process
• Our team
The real winners in this equation are newly-hired designers and hiring managers. With my simplified, centralized content, designers and managers can now quickly get access to onboarding materials, without having to go on full-blown scavenger hunt.
If I could change a few things...
If I could do this project all over again, I would:
• Create a separate experience for design teammates and the general Fannie Mae population (these groups have different goals when they visit our site)
• Make interactive onboarding assets: for example, interactive checklists for hiring managers versus a static one
• Do more iterative testing and changes (from a content governance perspective, we didn't account for team members switching teams/ leaving)
• Push to use a CMS with more design flexibility (Drupal or Wordpress were early front-runners)
• Create a separate experience for design teammates and the general Fannie Mae population (these groups have different goals when they visit our site)
• Make interactive onboarding assets: for example, interactive checklists for hiring managers versus a static one
• Do more iterative testing and changes (from a content governance perspective, we didn't account for team members switching teams/ leaving)
• Push to use a CMS with more design flexibility (Drupal or Wordpress were early front-runners)
