SharePoint Redesign
The company’s existing intranet site was hosted on an old version of SharePoint, which Microsoft no longer supported. The site had grown organically over the years and lacked clear information architecture, which was significantly hindering the user experience. In addition, several areas had been forgotten and contained outdated documents. The site’s content needed to be audited, the site structure rethought, and the user interface refreshed.
Learn, Audit, and Understand
Having never built anything on SharePoint before, and having only had limited interactions with the existing outdated SharePoint site, my first step was to educate myself about the platform by reading articles and watching YouTube and LinkedIn Learning videos.
To understand the extent and nature of the content housed in the existing SharePoint site, I conducted an audit. I documented page and folder titles—taking notes on duplicate and interrelated areas.
Before proceeding, I met with the CEO, the head of IT, the company librarian, and several other members of the technical staff to understand the business objectives, technical implications, and relevant stakeholders for the project.
Structure and Plan
Based on everything I had gathered, I developed an updated site map in Miro for the new SharePoint site. I aimed to keep the structural changes to a minimum and to configure the new site in such a way that permissions could be set with adequate detail at the site level.
With the highest priority being to launch a new committee area of the site quickly, I decided this would be delivered as Phase 1 of the project, then the non-technical areas would be added, followed by the technical areas in Phase 3.
Design and Execute Launch
For each phase, I met with stakeholders for the relevant sections of the site to discuss their needs, what was already working well for them, and what wasn’t. Then, I created proposed wireframes for the new version of each section and met with stakeholders again to discuss the design and make any necessary changes. Finally, I populated the full content with the help of a colleague.
Prior to launch for each phase, I selected a handful of colleagues to explore the new pages, test key flows, and report back any issues/feedback.
When it was time for launch, I planned carefully to ensure staff were informed and that information was not duplicated or lost in the process. A colleague and I also held several company-wide trainings along the way to familiarize staff with the new SharePoint platform.
Our efforts resulted in a transition that was smooth and successful. The final intranet was comprised of 22 sites linked together by an overarching hub site. In an average month, 50 staff members viewed the site a total of 5,700 times. The improved user experience changed staff’s perceptions of the intranet—turning it into a useful central repository for company information and knowledge.
