Our Sainsbury's
Information architecture
Role: Lead UX Designer, Project Lead
Problem
Regular feedback from the product team highlighted that internal colleagues were unable to find key information such as company benefits, development tools and tools to enable them to do their jobs.
Project planning
As this was an IA piece, I took lead from a research & design approach. We already had insight in to what content each colleague type required, so my recommended approach was to utilise key IA methodologies such as card sorting, tree jacking, as well as iterative one-on-one research sessions with the broad range of users from Depots, Stores and Head Office. Due to budget and timeline constraints, the card sorting and tree-jacking were left until a later phase.
Proposed architecture
The product team already had insight in to what content colleagues required, so we jumped ahead of card sorting and tree-jacking to create a proposed new architecture so we could get in to research sessions asap.
Proposed architecture
The product team already had insight in to what content colleagues required, so we jumped ahead of card sorting and tree-jacking to create a proposed new architecture so we could get in to research sessions asap.
Prototype for research round 1
Along with the UI designer, we created a quick mock up of the architecture so we could test key routes for our different user types.
Prototype for research round 1
Along with the UI designer, we created a quick mock up of the architecture so we could test key routes for our different user types.
Prototype for research round 1
Along with the UI designer, we created a quick mock up of the architecture so we could test key routes for our different user types.
Prototype for research round 1
Along with the UI designer, we created a quick mock up of the architecture so we could test key routes for our different user types.
Research
Our colleagues varied in job roles across Depots, Stores and Head Office, with a range of requirements for tools to do their jobs (e.g. planograms), employee benefits, policy handbooks and learning and development guideance.
I created realistic tasks based on these, highlighting routes to completion so the UX Researchers could establish how successfull task completion was on the proposed IA.
Design iterations & research round 2
Feedback from the proposed IA was positive. A few changes were required to terminology and the split of learning and development content before going in to another round of research.
Supporting the IA
Whilst a new IA would help colleagues find relevant information, especially with a mega menu, an improved homepage content hierachy could maximise the ability for colleagues to locate desired content. I identified 3 key areas to focus on:
1. Internal comms messaging: messaging from the company.
2. Workplace tasks: store colleagues saw the 'My workplace' section as their main area, so this brought forward most their most important daily tasks.
3. Raising awareness: highighting key information, such as benefits, changing jobs internally ('inside move') and guidance content such as how to manage your finances. This content was all highlighted as important, but users were simply unaware.
SUPPORTING THE IA
Whilst a new IA would help colleagues find relevant information, especially with a mega menu, an improved homepage content hierachy could maximise the ability for colleagues to locate desired content.
Storytelling
The aim of this project was to get further investment for development. In order to achieve this we needed to tell a story of the increased value these IA improvements would create.
The key for me was to walkthrough each aspect of the proposed changes; new IA, mega menu and homepage hierachy and how these all work together.
But underpinning all of this was the existing IA not allowing colleagues to build up a clear mental model of the site.
Next steps
As the research was conducted within limited numbers of colleagues, the recommendation was to follow through on the card sorting and tree-jacking exercises to get data on a higher number of users.
We also outlined KPI’s so we could measure success.
Since then, the card sorting and tree-jacking exercises have taken place, with some further iterations to the original IA proposed. This is now awaiting funding.
