Redesigning Salesforce internal blog as a
‘UX team of one’
Personal disclaimer
This project is particularly meaningful to me as it provided a unique opportunity to showcase my skills in UX design, strategic thinking, project management, communication, and empathy. My journey through this endeavor was not just a professional milestone but also a personal achievement, allowing me to grow significantly as a designer.
MY ROLE
UX Designer
User research
UI Designer
DELIVERABLES
User Research
Usability Testing
Design System
Style Guide
TEAM
Copy Writers
Project Manager
Developers
Graphic designer
YEAR
2022
Overview
The challenge
Our internal blog, "Inside Salesforce," primarily focused on employee storytelling. While this served a purpose, it limited the platform's effectiveness as a comprehensive cultural hub. As I delved deeper into the project, it became clear that we needed to enhance user experience and engagement.
Constraints
Handoff Dynamics: Transitioning from another team required a swift understanding of the project scope, which significantly impacted team cohesion across two organizations.
Limited Project Management Support: Without a dedicated project manager, me, as the UX team, had to assume enhanced roles in alignment and communication, ensuring everyone was on the same page.
Limited Project Management Support: Without a dedicated project manager, me, as the UX team, had to assume enhanced roles in alignment and communication, ensuring everyone was on the same page.
Problem statement
The "Inside Salesforce" blog lacked usability and engagement, limiting its role as a cultural hub due to inconsistent navigation and poor accessibility.
What’s in my UX toolkit
Before starting the project, I referred to a UX toolkit I discovered in the book “The User Experience Team of One” by Leah Buley, which guided me in strategizing and selecting the most suitable methods for the project's unique requirements. This toolkit equipped me with valuable insights and frameworks to effectively tackle the design challenges at hand.
Discovering user needs
Stakeholder interviews
I scheduled meetings with project stakeholders to gather insights into their priorities and goals. This dialogue revealed crucial business objectives, including creating a user-friendly blog that increased page views and engaged users.
Clients business objectives: - To create a user-friendly blog in order to showcase a mixture of evergreen resources and top-of-mind blog posts.
- Updated navigation
- Increase users and page views
- Enhance user experience for personalization and engagement.
- Centralize resources from other microsite.
Clients business objectives: - To create a user-friendly blog in order to showcase a mixture of evergreen resources and top-of-mind blog posts.
- Updated navigation
- Increase users and page views
- Enhance user experience for personalization and engagement.
- Centralize resources from other microsite.
Proto persona development
Next, I led a session with stakeholders to create a proto persona representing our target user—company employees. While we understood the general audience, we needed deeper insights into their motivations to empathize better throughout the project
New employee
Goals: Essential resources and cultural introduction.
Navigating the company’s resources.
Pain Points: Information overload and brand unfamiliarity.
Pain Points: Information overload and brand unfamiliarity.
Existing Employees
Goals: Quick access to key resources and company updates.
Pain Points: Limited time for exploration.
Pain Points: Limited time for exploration.
Executives
Goals: Quick access to internal latest news.
Pain Points: High time constraints and expectations for consistency.
Pain Points: High time constraints and expectations for consistency.
Analyzing the current state and competitors’ features
To understand the existing challenges, I employed a heuristic markup to map the user experience, capturing their thought processes and assessing the product's quality. Additionally, I conducted a competitor analysis to identify best practices, documenting key features and user flows to guide the design process.
Page elements and navigation systems evaluation
Design process
My Strategy
I proposed using Figma to create a streamlined design system that allows designers to duplicate a master file for monthly needs while maintaining consistency.
Research
By gathering insights from team members about their pain points, I identified challenges and researched successful systems from the Figma community to create reusable templates and components.
Design
I built a comprehensive system in Figma, including templates and customizable components. This new system enabled designers to update the asset suite with just 12 clicks.
Implementation
I introduced the system in a team meeting, demonstrating its functionalities and providing instructions. The team responded positively, showing enthusiasm for the improvements.
Digital sketches for feature exploration
Wireframes and low-fidelity prototyping
With defined features in mind, I created low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the blog's different page layouts and functionality. This step was crucial for mapping the user interface structure, ensuring intuitive navigation. I then developed a prototype for usability testing with real company employees to validate my design direction.
Two wireframes from the prototype I tested with the target audience
Feature highlight - Second navigation bar
The secondary navigation bar was designed to enable blog owners to host additional microsites within the blog platform, each with its own distinct navigation system separate from the main blog's. As users scroll down the page,
the secondary navigation bar replaces the primary one, allowing users to concentrate on the relevant navigation options specific to the microsite they are visiting.
the secondary navigation bar replaces the primary one, allowing users to concentrate on the relevant navigation options specific to the microsite they are visiting.
The secondary navigation bar in action
Usability testing
To ensure our solutions addressed user needs effectively, I implemented a usability testing plan. We tested six company employees to assess key features:
Navigate the blog: Users were tasked with locating specific content to evaluate navigation clarity.
Use the secondary navigation bar: Users asked to navigate to page that’s a migrated microsite and asked to use its secondary navigation system.
provide feedback on a story:They read a selected story and submitted feedback, aiding in the evaluation of the feedback feature’s usability.
Explore content categories:Users navigated through different content types to verify if the updated categorization was effective.
Metrics for success included task completion rates, time taken to complete tasks, and user satisfaction ratings.
Navigate the blog: Users were tasked with locating specific content to evaluate navigation clarity.
Use the secondary navigation bar: Users asked to navigate to page that’s a migrated microsite and asked to use its secondary navigation system.
provide feedback on a story:They read a selected story and submitted feedback, aiding in the evaluation of the feedback feature’s usability.
Explore content categories:Users navigated through different content types to verify if the updated categorization was effective.
Metrics for success included task completion rates, time taken to complete tasks, and user satisfaction ratings.
Testing plan and documentation
Technical build and iImplementation
Handoff and implementation oversight
I created a comprehensive and annotated design system outlining features, functions, and interactions necessary for developers to implement the design on the WordPress platform. This design system served as a crucial reference, ensuring all aspects of the user experience were clearly defined.
Portion of the handoff document provided to the development team
Style guide handed to the development team
Style guide development for blog owners
To maintain consistency as team members may change, I also developed a comprehensive style guide in spreadsheet form. This guide detailed each new element used to create and edit blog pages, serving as a single source of truth for the team. The style guide included use cases, character counts, and an overarching explanation of the design process with names and references for future inquiries.
Style guide handed to the blog owners
Conclusion
KPI
- 30% increase in page visits
- Improving average time on page from 0.4 seconds to 1.2 seconds.
- The secondary nav feature allowed hosting 4 microsite
- Improving average time on page from 0.4 seconds to 1.2 seconds.
- The secondary nav feature allowed hosting 4 microsite
Growth and impact
Through this project, I not only enhanced our blog's functionality but also solidified my skills as a designer, communicator, and strategist. The redesign of "Inside Salesforce" significantly improved user engagement, and I was proud to see this project contribute to my promotion from graphic designer to UX/UI Specialist. This journey taught me the transformative power of empathy in design and showed me how strategic thinking can elevate user experiences across teams and organizations.
