IT / HR Service Portal
Simplifying access to internal IT and HR services
My role
Led the end-to-end portal design and collaborated on the design of the internal IT and HR service catalogue offerings.
Project overview
Replacing IT and HR legacy systems with a new service portal to simplify access and maintenance of internal IT and HR services.
Approach
To start the engagement I worked closely with the marketing team to align the visual design aspects of the portal with internal branding guidelines. Getting this aspect of the design signed off early enabled me to chip away at the final detailed design of the portal while we workshopped the design of the individual service offerings.
Workshops were run with IT and HR teams to understand what services were to be offered as part of the MVP release. Through this process we developed a schedule for engaging with IT and HR subject matter experts across the business.
We designed our forms through workshopping ideas with the project team and subject matter experts. I then used Figma to produce prototypes which we user tested with nominated change champions from across the business. The findings from the user testing were presented back to the project team and feedback was used to iterate and refine our forms.
To design the information architecture of the service portal I used the card sorting feature of the Optimal Workshop Suite to conduct user testing. This design went through rounds of iteration, the technology section of the catalogue was particularly challenging due to the use of tech jargon.
We user tested the portal with screen reader users to ensure that the design would work with the preferred screen reading software. An accessibility statement was also written to provide transparency around portal accessibility standards.
We worked closely with the Change Management team to support training materials for the portal release. Upon release a team was setup to capture feedback and support continuous improvement.
Outcomes
The portal consolidated IT and HR services into a single access point, replacing fragmented legacy systems and reducing licensing costs.
For tech teams, it introduced reporting capability — enabling them to root cause issues more effectively and make more informed decisions around staffing across workstreams.
For end users, it removed the need to know where to go to access services and enabled them to track requests without needing to manually follow up with the Service Desk.
Challenges
Competing priorities — The project was split into workstreams to deliver different aspects of the portal. A desire to work quickly meant that ways of working were not defined initially. This created a bottleneck for design resource early on which made it difficult to prioritise requests. This was resolved through communication and planning. As the project developed we settled into a sustainable delivery cadence.
Technical constraints — Working with an out of the box product meant that requests and designs were not always aligned with how the product was intended to function. By working closely with our developers and product subject matter experts I was able to translate designs within technical constraints.
Portal information architecture
We used card sorting to user test our portal IA. We iterated and tested our structure over several rounds with change champions from across the business.
Mega menu user testing
We used the development instance of the portal to user test our mega menu. The tech offerings were particularly tricky to dial in and was improved by replacing jargon with everyday terms.
Bridging design and development
Conducting product research and having conversations with SMEs helped balance the needs of the users, business requirements, and the product's out-of-the-box functionality.
Testing and iterating
We worked with tech and HR SMEs to scope high volume services. By user testing forms we arrived at designs that were simple to request and fulfil.
