Intranet redesign
UX Design
Illustrations
UX Research
Branding & Identity
UI Design
Product
Scrum master
Gold Coast Health
Client /
In-house
1 Aug 2023
-
7 Feb 2025
Health
Team
1 Product owner
1 Scrum Master (me)
2 UX designers (me)
2 content advisors
3 developers
Role
Senior UX UI designer and Scrum Master
Responsibilities
Desktop research
Iterative usability testing of all concepts.
Design CMS templates to house all mandatory content
I set up and facilitated Agile ceremonies and supported our team to empower them to do the work.
Help support the product owner with writing user stories, and prioritising high-priority tickets for reaching the sprints goal
I set up Google Analytics 4 and defined the tags to fire in Google Tag Manager to track our key business goals.
Overview
Gold Coast Health initiated the redesign of its Intranet with the vision of improving how clinicians and non-clinicians consume the information and support them to do their work efficiently.
The Challenge
What is the problem with the current state
Clinicians frequently move between wards in their day-to-day, this is challenging because the current site is not responsive for mobile.
The homepage is distracting, it doesn't focus on the main user goals for the site.
Internal staff can't save frequently accessed documents and articles and content discoverability is unintuitive.
The staff don't trust the search. The search function returns useless results, making it hard for them to find documents to carry out their tasks.
The current CMS has a steep learning requirement, making it tedious and time-consuming to update content.
We identified 3 main challenges
Design a one-size-fits-all collection of templates
The current intranet has a total of 2000+ pages and 9000+ documents.
Design an automated content structure
Content is duplicated across multiple pages in the current intranet resulting in inconsistent and unreliable data.
Improve the search algorithm
The current search is compromised. A business decision was made to allow 'Featured' results to always appear at the top of the results page after every search query. The problem is that users would only see their desired results below the fold and sometimes on the next page.
Working with a new CMS
Sanity Studio comes with new and different technical capabilities and limitations.
Considerations
We are migrating from Joomla CMS to Sanity CMS.
We must manage the Queensland Health firewall to allow access from outside the network.
We will use Algolia for our search engine.
We have a large scale of 9000+ documents to store and manage.
Current state design
The Process
Run through past research
Before I began this project, it underwent an extensive discovery phase. The UX designer engaged with stakeholders and user interviews.
My initial task was to familiarise myself with all the findings and parameters of the research. I aimed to understand the business needs from the perspective of stakeholders, as well as the main goals and pain points of clinicians and non-clinicians.
What to learn?
Who are the main users of the intranet?
What are their main tasks?
What are the most popular pages being accessed today?
When do the main users consume the information?
What are the current pain points and frustrations with the intranet?
What does the business expect from this project?
Desktop research
I have never worked on an intranet before so I spent some time upskilling in best practices for intranet design. I leant on big UX sites like The Norman Neilson Group who have a dedicated awards program solely on Intranet design and they have also spent years researching best practices.
I researched top publications, news sites, and other health sites to understand industry trends for presenting text-heavy and resource-heavy articles.
To better understand the user behaviour of the current intranet, I looked into Google Analytics to learn the most popular clicks from the homepage, most popular pages, and most popular services. GA also offers information like the most downloaded documents, popular device sizes, and popular browsers. These statistics were a good validation for justifying future story priorities.
Managing user goals and business requirements
The project's initial scope and MVP was to 'lift and shift' content from the current intranet to the new CMS platform. The problem with this is that content design works differently. The current intranet has a static architecture, which causes inconsistency and duplication of content.
Stakeholder interviews
To ensure the content design effectively met the needs of content owners across the organisation, we conducted extensive interviews for each key template identified during the discovery phase. Our primary goal was to understand the purpose of the content, uncover essential requirements, and determine which elements were non-negotiable. These insights shaped our design approach, ensuring that each template was structured to support both usability and organisational needs.
Lo-fi Wireframes
After analysing all the discovered data and obtaining the key findings from the discovery phase, we were ready to begin ideating the initial concepts for each CMS template. By focusing on layout, navigation, and user flow without the distraction of visuals or branding, we were able to help align stakeholders, validate concepts, and identify usability issues early in product development.
All wireframes defined in this phase were reviewed with key stakeholders and users. Feedback was implemented while considering the project's scope.
The Solution
Mobile Responsive
All staff can access the intranet from any device and at any time.
Seamless CMS with roles & permissions
Content needs proper governance with the right tools to support content updates and strategy.
Tag-based data structuring
To create a flat, non-hierarchical navigation, allowing content to be created once and dynamically surfaced in multiple areas of the intranet. This approach improves discoverability, reduces duplication, and ensures a more flexible, user-friendly experience.
Personalisation
Design a personalised homepage experience, allowing users to bookmark all key content types(articles, services, documents and applications) for easy, quick access to frequently used content.
Improve Search
The clinicians and non-clinicians want to be able to view a list of recent queries for quick reference,
The Article Template
One of the most used templates in the Intranet is the article template. The main purpose of the article template is to provide a structured and consistent framework for creating, managing, and presenting content tailored to the needs of the organisation's internal audience.
The top page banner serves as an introduction to the page topic, allowing users to quickly understand the purpose of the content and its relevance.
The 'On this page' component is a quick scroll to specific contents on the page to assist users who know what they are looking for.
A side navigation menu serves to assist users in discovering the contents of the collection. This menu enables effortless navigation, allowing users to jump between pages without losing their place or focus. The design makes it easy to explore related content seamlessly.
The utility bar is a central hub for all the resources featured on the page. By consolidating these assets in one location, users can access them quickly without the need to scroll or scan through the entire page. This approach enhances efficiency and ensures essential materials are always within reach. Contact information specific to the page offers users a direct channel for further inquiries.
At the bottom of the page, users will find navigation to the next page in the collection. This ensures a smooth and intuitive progression through the content, supporting a continuous and cohesive experience.
Unlocked achievements
While working on this project, we encountered a few unknowns along the way.
As we moved into the development phase after the initial designs were defined and tested, we realised our process lacked structure, making it challenging to track progress effectively. Drawing from my experience with Agile methodologies, I helped communicate the value of implementing a more structured approach, enabling better collaboration, iteration, and visibility into our progress.
Agile Workshops
The Head of Digital Transformation arranged for the entire Digital Transformation team to attend a two-day Agile workshop led by an external Agile partner. The workshop provided in-depth training on Agile methodologies and ways of working within the Scrum framework. Following the sessions, it became clear that a Scrum Master role was needed to guide the team in adopting these practices. Recognising the opportunity to contribute and leverage my skills, I volunteered for the role, helping to facilitate collaboration and drive Agile adoption within the team.
Scrum Master
My first task in this new role was to set up and schedule key Agile ceremonies, ensuring the team’s availability and alignment. I organised and ran daily WIPs, product backlog refinement sessions, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and, most importantly, retrospectives to foster continuous improvement.
A crucial step in our Agile adoption was defining the Definition of Ready and Definition of Done. These frameworks empowered the team to establish clear criteria for starting work and set expectations for successful outcomes. By implementing these guidelines, we enhanced collaboration, streamlined our workflow, and improved communication around project goals and deliverables.
This role evolved into critical tasks such as collaborating with the product owner to assist in guiding the product backlog, setting upcoming Sprint goals, and reporting on our velocity to effectively monitor our capacity and performance.
Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager
As we approached the final stages of our MVP, we realised the need to track user interactions and engagement with key features in the new intranet design. However, we quickly discovered that no one on the team had the expertise to implement tracking. Eager to bridge this gap, I took the initiative to learn and implement Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).
After familiarising myself with the setup, I defined and configured key tags in GTM to capture essential user behaviours. This included tracking actions like bookmarking and interactions with the utility bar on article pages. By implementing these tracking mechanisms, we could gain valuable insights into feature usage, helping to inform future optimisations and enhance the overall user experience.