The Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure group had an online presence via SharePoint classic, but a heuristic evaluation revealed many problem areas that needed to be addressed. The existing site did not orient users to its place in the ecosystem (a hub or parent site, with many spokes or child sites beneath it). These child sites were each run by individuals with their own look and feel, so there was no coherent design language uniting any of the child sites. The heuristic evaluation found multiple UX issues within the navigation system, low visibility headers within the twitter feed section, and improper use of a notification bar to house “about us” content which may result in user confusion.
Project Goal
The goal was to provide an enhanced design, achievable with a customized Modern SharePoint template, that addressed all these pain points — along with updated branding and design direction for all of AHSI’s child sites.
Process
I met with the AHSI stakeholders and we reviewed several Modern SharePoint templates from the lookbook. I had made a suggested direction, and they were on board with it. I took an afternoon and customized the existing Modern SharePoint template to ensure all the pain points were addressed and their content was integrated. I also provided a dozen branding (icon) options for their review. I next met with the development team to ensure technical feasibility (we can do all of this in Modern SharePoint, right?) and they gave it a green light. AHSI loved the design and we started buildout. I simultaneously met with child site stakeholders and advised them on establishing a common design language to unify all these sites under AHSI, as well as a common universal navigation structure. I also developed custom branding for child sites that were extended beyond SharePoint into PowerBI dashboards and email templates.
Results
The stakeholders at AHSI were very pleased with this design solution — we accomplished the goal of modernizing AHSI, addressing all the issues found in the heuristic evaluation, and extending the look and feel throughout the ecosystem for a cohesive experience between the parent and child sites.
