When I first started working on this project, I was a Recruiting Coordinator in the Human Resources department. I agreed to work on the project because I am passionate about design and helping new employees be successful in their role. Participating on the project team was a major catalyst to pursuing my dream of designing cool things for the interwebs. I have since gained the skills needed to become an engineer so I used this knowledge to build out a high-fidelity prototype using Bootstrap code.
The original need for this project resulted from an increase in new hires being added to the Human Resources department at a rapidly growing open-source technology company. I was part of a 4 person project team representing The North America region. I participated in the project as an individual contributor.
- Re-design an existing team intranet page to enhance the global new hire onboarding training program
- The portal would serve as an internal toolkit to help new employees learn their job quicker and more efficiently
- Central place for all process documentation, team announcements, and global training guides.
Understanding the big picture was crucial to designing an outstanding team onboarding portal. I began researching the intranet for other teams who may have created similar portals and training toolkits. I also explored the organizational structure of the global Human Resources department. I began putting together a list of people who could be subject matter experts on our project team.
I started whiteboarding my ideas and sharing my designs with peers. Once all versions were approved by the project manager, I began creating a test site on the company intranet to explore all of the possible features and functionality.
The real test was to actually use the newly created site to train a new hire. The new hires would provide our project team with feedback on topics such as user experience, information architecture, and most importantly, the impact the site had on their ramp-up time to productivity.
The overall feedback from new hires was positive. They appreciated having all the information they needed to know in one place. They also liked the breakdown of information in terms of WHAT they needed to know and WHEN.
Below are screenshots of the prototype that I created using Bootstrap. I chose to use Bootstrap because it was a new skill that I was learning while I was attending a code academy. Bootstrap also gives you a great code base to start from especially for a large site like an Onboarding Portal.
Want to see the original design? Check it out here
I hope to eventually re-design the Dashboard and make it more customized. I would love to create a portal that integrates with other departments like Payroll, Benefits, Talent Acquisition, etc. It would be a one-stop-shop for everything a new hire needs.
