EMPLOYER
A+E Networks

ROLE
UX Designer

PLATFORMS
Web, iOS

Overview

I was contracted to help design the first ever A+E Networks employee website. As part of a team of 2 other UX designers, 1 project, 1 product manager and 2 engineers we collaborated on requirements gathering, scope planning, initial UX design iterations and interactive prototype creation, which we later tested with our in-house user audience. We recorded their interactions using Silverback. After iterating on the data we presented in front of company c-level executives and created a second iteration which was delivered to a visual designer and the two engineers for development. A+E Networks’ intranet was launched after 11 month process of design and development.

Challenge

A+E Networks needed an internal employee website - an employee facing enterprise application the company has never had before. We had to gather all requirements as well as plan for approval of process from all levels of company departments involved, mostly the Department of Corporate Communications. We had to uncover what is possible, as well as use our own judgement and suggest what the most appropriate content would be that would live on this website and be accessed by all company employees on a daily basis.

What we found out was that there was a wealth of content from each department, but different points of access made things confusing or inaccessible for most employees.

Process

Discovery Phase

We used Agile methodology - 2 weeks sprints from discovery phase to development. After establishing a timeline for completion we started with uncovering what sort of content would such a website carry at a high level. Content gathering was conducted simply by organizing all information from most company departments, with main and largest amount of data from the HR department. Since A+E Networks is a TV network and therefore a content making company, there also had to be a heavy amount of entertainment media content. We started architecting all the information and created mock user flows, high fidelity mockups and user journeys, followed by the very first wireframe iterations. Those were presented internally and made into a clickable prototype, which we used for our user tests with A+E employees on-site.

Outcomes

After two iterations and presenting usability finings to Corporate Communications a wireframe was agreed upon that was handed off to a visual designer who created all visual assets. The final comps and annotated wireframes were delivered to the developers. The first ever A+E Networks responsive employee website launched after 11 months of research, design and development.