Commonwealth Care Alliance
CommonGround (Intranet) Reinvent
September 2019 - February 2020
Make CommonGround Great Again
Back in 2003, hopping on CommonGround to start a day of work was refreshing. By the start of 2019, this “wonderland” had faded to a number of unrelated features that made the experience slow and complex to use.
It was at this time that I decided to become part of an ambitious project to redesign the intranet experience for the fast-growing healthcare provider.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Commonwealth Care Alliance.
Overview
Commonwealth Care Alliance has experienced an exponential growth in the years since the legacy intranet was first developed. From 2016 to present, the company has doubled in size and consequently, has outgrown the functionality that it once provided.
Its intranet - CommonGround – was designed in 2003 and struggled to keep pace with the hyper-growth of the company. Its fundamental usability was challenged.
Conflicting features and booming site-content competed with one another. Searchability problems and performance issues soon began to spring up like mushrooms.
From employee engagement surveys and organization pulse surveys to other employee feedback forums, the situation was clear: the intranet in its original shape was no longer able to meet employee needs.
My Roles
Lead UI/UX Designer
Teammates
1 x UI/UX Designer
1 x Product Owner
1 x Visual Designer
1 x Technology Program Analyst
1 x Director of Digital Transformation
2 x Sharepoint Specialist
30+ x Stakeholders
Deliverables
User Research & Report
Competitor Analysis & Report
Sitemap (Information Architecture)
Persona & Journey Map
Design Guideline
Prototype
Usability Testing & Report
Our Goals
The goal of the project was to reproduce the glory of CommonGrounds’ early days. The original premises were simple: to empower the intranet with intuitive site-navigation and with reliable search functions. However, we weren't trying to revert to our basic past ideas. Our ambition was to lay a foundation that embraced a rapidly evolving business and a more diverse user base.
Our high level goals were to:
Make intranet easy to access, quick to respond, and efficient to use for employees from anywhere
Empower each department and team to self-manage their own content
Perfect search experience to enhance working efficiency
Create a platform that encourages team collaboration and strengthens employee engagement
Process
Learn the full story of CommonGround
or continue to the project highlights below
Introducing CommonGround 2.0
In a prime-time of enterprising, experience optimization, CommonGround 2.0 offers the best intranet experience for business employees to engage, collaborate, and innovate. One of the primary goals for the new intranet was to empower users, so they could be responsible for their own content. This achievement grants users control over their own site. Users now can maintain, update, and manage their own content. The value of the intranet should not be understated because having a central communications hub and collaboration tool widely used is extremely critical for productivity and employee satisfaction.
A New Way To Introduce Yourself
Employee profiles are another way for colleagues to form a human connection to one another and to bond over shared interests. Employees can customize their profiles by adding skill sets and by summarizing their current projects.
Searching Made Effortless
The new intranet search function always finds the optimal results.
CommonGround 2.0 saves you time without needing to go through a long list of new sorting and filtering functions. Locating and identifying the results you need is much easier. No more irrelevant results.
Manage Content Anytime
The new intranet empowers each team to manage their own department page content. No more administrative form and approval is required. Light and breezy.
Find Your Colleagues
With newly-designed employee directories and interactive organization charts, CommonGround 2.0 not only makes searching employee information a simple task, but it also gives rise to internal network-building opportunities.
Social Happenings Online
Social channels, which is an innovative feature, encourage employees to connect and share social happenings online. With this platform, the organization can be incorporated into an organic, unified network.
Improved Site Structure
CommonGround 2.0 replaces confusing navigational items with a more intuitive site-structure.
Learn more about my design thinking
To know how I made design decisions and how we got there
Awards & Recognition
I am more than pleased to know that the CommonGround 2.0 was recognized by industries including the major UX organization, Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) as the best intranet design in 2021.
What People Are Saying About CommonGround
“Design isn’t finished until somebody is using it.” we are thrilled to receive so much positive feedback from users.
“Updated my CommonGround [profile]!! Been here 5 years and love the new layout more user friendly can’t wait to learn more!!!”
— CCA Employee
“CommonGround 2.0 IS THE BEST!!!!!!! Seriously, one of the best innovations to date! This will benefit all of us many times a day! Thank you to the team who got it done!!! I never expected it to be so life changing.”
— Clinician #1
“I had not yet looked for DST’s [Decision Support Tools] on CG2.0 as I figured it would take more time for them to be uploaded. So, I was so pleasantly surprised to not only find them there but in the most user-friendly way I could ask for! Access to these is critical for us and finding them and the number of clicks to access them on the old CG was truly tedious. These are tools that both UM [Utilization Management] and CM [Care Management] staff need readily at hand…I can’t wait to regularly refer clinicians to the new access to DST’s on CG2.0 because I believe when they find how user-friendly it is they will return each and every time they need to reference one without hesitation. This will add to their needed knowledge base and lessen the amount they need direction from a supervisor leading to more independence for a variety of tasks. SO THANK YOU AGAIN! 😊”
— Clinician #2
“What I love about Commonground 2.0 is the ease of accessibility. It’s no longer web based and can be accessed without signing into the VPN. I also love the People section. This allows me to identify the people I communicate with visually, provides their title and contact information, and provides who they report to. I find it user friendly and extremely helpful.”
— CCA Employee #1
“Love love love the new commonground!!!! This will definitely be the FIRST thing I check every morning! Thank you!!!!”
— CCA Employee #2
“CommonGround 2.0 looks amazing! Great job getting it to the finish line. I can’t wait to collaborate on content in the future.”
— CCA Employee #3