MyPru - Employee Intranet
MyPru is Prudential’s intranet that serves tens of thousands of employees nationally. It also serves as a centralized hub for different employee portals. For this project, we created a new responsive design system, information architecture, and content guidelines.
As UX Lead, my primary responsibility was to ensure a positive user experience through testing. I was a primary contributor to interactive and visual concepts and lead the content adaptation effort. The agency side included a Creative Director, User Experience Lead, Project Manager, and a team of visual designers.
I. Previous Iteration
Employees characterized the previous version of MyPru as overwhelming and complicated. Navigation and page templates were confusing, and employees typically remembered how to access content through muscle memory.
II. Information Architecture
we had the previous version of MyPru’s IA along with a proposed version (based on stakeholder card sort). We used testing tools from the Optimal Workshop's suite to see if either performed significantly better. Emails were sent out to employees with a total of over 70 participants.
Open Card Sorting
we used an open card sort to see if user groupings aligned with either of the two IAs.
key findings:
1. Benefits, Career, Community, Learning, Manager, and Money should clear grouping patterns.
2. “Wellness and Benefits” which was originally a section in the previous version, had very distinct groupings Benefits (Medical Plans, Life Insurance) and wellness (health coaching, fitness, on-site clinics).
3. Content regarding stocks, vacation, onboarding did not show consistent grouping patterns.
Tree Testing
We wrote a set of 12 tasks and randomly assigned users to the old or proposed versions of the IA.
key findings:
1. Neither old, nor proposed IA performed significantly better tha than the other. Across tasks in both Baseline and MVP, participants would explore multiple sections then go back. This shows low confidence in task answers.
2. Participants had trouble predicting what content was nested in labels “All About Pru” and “My Self”.
III. Visual Concepts
One of our goals in the concept process was to create a component system that could be executed on other websites. Some key features we wanted to implement were integrating social platforms, building a clear sense of hierarchy, and streamlining page templates.
Home Page Feed - create a sense of community through shared stories and social integration
Index Pages - Clear page structure surfacing most important link at the top, followed by popular resources, then promoted content.
Content Detail Pages - left rail navigation and breadcrumbs make it easy for a user to know where they are.
IV. Usability Testing
We used a coded prototype and task list for in person moderated usability testing. Participants were volunteer employees and testing happened at the client office. The testing process consisted of three sessions, two weeks apart. At the beginning of the first test, and the end of every test, we asked employees to fill out an objective survey to get a sense of general attitudes. Design changes would be made to the prototype between sessions.
key findings:
1. One of the key pages “Workplace” was originally located above other navigation items. Users did not acknowledge this items since it was not in-line with the other navigation links.
2. Users wanted to engage with feed content even more. They wanted to know more about the authors, find related content, and understand why certain content was showing up.
3. Scanning the left rail for pages slowed many users down. Additional organizing clues such as alphabetizing and adding sublabels can alleviate this issue.
V. Content Adaptation
While the client recognized the need to retool content, they didn't want to complete start over. We offered guidelines on how to improve page design
recommendation highlights:
1. Instead of a link hub at the end of the page, group links contextually in their related content sections.
2. Do not use headings as links as it goes against user expectations of the design system.
3. Use numbers to make instructional and sequential content easier to digest.
VI. Outcome
Users appreciated the modern design and analytics showed that the new navigation was effective in minimizing employee confusion. We provided an ongoing testing plan and usability findings for further investigation.