A personalized intranet, integrated with Microsoft 365, designed to improve employee experience.
Role
Industry
Tools
01. Overview of Project
MDS is a Portuguese multinational group specialized in insurance brokerage, risk management consulting, and related solutions.
My role: I was the sole UX/UI Designer doing the research, problem defining, solutioning and create interface at a high level for the entire product.
Background: As the MDS intranet evolved from its initial version, the platform was struggling to fully meet employee needs. The structure was generic, navigation was confusing, and personalization was limited. Engagement and usage were lower than expected.
I developed a redesign strategy that evolved over time to create a more personalized, intuitive, and engaging intranet, integrated with Microsoft 365 improving employee experience and encouraging collaboration across teams.
From explorations to final designs in 5 weeks while working with another projects at the same time
I worked with: Product Manager, Cross Functional Engineering squad including 2 backenders, 1 front enders & a QA specialist.
02. Challenge
The ecosystem already existed, with employees using the intranet as their main access point. However, the company wanted a more personalized experience, beyond just a document repository.
The main challenge was to create a more engaging and social environment that could bring teams together, increase platform usage, and foster a stronger sense of belonging.
03. Discovery & Research
Interviews and group dynamics
To deeply understand employees’ needs and pain points, and why users only use the intranet to find documents, I decided to conduct some interviews.
I spoke with employees from different departments and hierarchical levels and facilitated quick co-creation sessions to gather expectations, collect feedback on the existing intranet tool, prioritize functionalities, and evaluate content relevance.
These conversations focused on daily tasks, workflows, tools used, and communication channels.Through interviews conducted by the project lead, I observed interactions with tools, teams, and systems. We documented user needs, challenges, workarounds, and moments of satisfaction.
Key pain points identified:
Communication only happened in formal contexts (meetings, via teams, emails).
There are to many single channels: Sharepoint, Club M with news and events, Plaform for support and open tickets.
Weak sense of community, teams knew little about each other outside strictly operational work.
User journey
I mapped typical journeys of different employees within the intranet. This approach transformed raw research data into a holistic view of the user experience, making it easier for the team to empathize with users and helps generate practical insights and prioritize product improvements.
Stakeholder Workshop Alignment
A workshop with stakeholders from multiple departments and business units helped align business and user goals. During this workshop, I presented the journey maps and content audit results. Supporting the project lead, I documented discussions and artifacts that informed feature and functionality prioritization.
Collaboration with stakeholders ensured alignment throughout the intranet redesign process.
Information Architecture
I developed a scoring system from 0 to 5, with each level defining guidelines across six categories: audience relevance, accuracy, tone of voice, clarity, conciseness, and mobile compatibility.
This audit, together with research findings and stakeholder input, guided the structure of pages and content into a scalable information architecture that became the model for the new intranet.
04. Design Process
Wireframing & Prototypes
I created high-fidelity wireframes focusing on prioritized content, features, and functionalities.
I designed reusable templates for future content expansion. Using these wireframes, I built a fully functional prototype for usability testing and as a reference for developers.
I also documented all links, interactions, and transitions to support development.
Usability Testing
I identified tasks that employees from each department performed daily and wrote a discussion guide outlining task objectives and flows.
Using an interactive prototype, I ran usability tests with employees from multiple departments to validate the redesign. I observed user actions and behaviors closely.
Each task was rated against predefined objectives and success metrics. Insights from the tests were incorporated into the final wireframe iteration.
05. Solution
06. Results
This project highlights the importance of user-centered design in improving organizational tools and employee satisfaction.
Employee engagement with the intranet increased by 45%: An intuitive interface and social features encouraged more employees to use the intranet frequently.
Improved Organizational Climate: A stronger sense of community and belonging created a more positive, collaborative work environment.
Centralized Information a intranet integrated with Microsoft 365: centralizing information so that important documents and updates became easily accessible, saving employees valuable time.
