Novartis Digital Hub - Alison Howard

Client

Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Project

Digital Hub

My role

Lead Product Designer

Summary

Novartis needed a way to upskill their 160,000+ employees in digital ways of working. With legacy systems a significant constraint, a clear structure was needed to create a learning platform that could grow and evolve with the needs of the company.

The problem

The existing Digital Awareness Hub had started as a place to put learning materials without any real structure. The site was difficult to navigate with unclear menu link labels and no clear hierarchy. New content had been continually added to the home page because if it wasn’t, it was too hard to locate.

Goals

Increase traffic to the Digital Hub

Create a clear and intuitive information architecture

Improve communication of new materials

Make searching for learning materials simpler

The Digital Hub was exceedingly long with poor navigation

Goals

Improve sign in rate

Improve self-service for existing bookings

Reduce sales calls to the call centre

Increase flexibility for sub brands placement

My role

I worked on this project with a Strategist, Product Owner and Junior Designer before handing the designs over to an external development agency. We introduced the client team which was geographically spread between Ireland and Switzerland to working in agile 2 week sprints and had daily standups in order to work hand in hand with them.

The process

Audit of existing site

Consult stakeholders

Establish key objectives

User interviews

Initial wireframes

Information architecture

Journey maps

Customer personas

Initial UI exploration

Stakeholder review

Iterate designs

Final design

Iterate

Multi-variant testing

Development

Present to stakeholders

The process

Audit of existing site

Consult stakeholders

Establish key objectives

Journey maps

Customer personas

User interviews

Information architecture

Initial wireframes

Initial UI exploration

Final design

Iterate designs

Stakeholder review

Present to stakeholders

Development

Multi-variant testing

Iterate

The process

Audit of existing site

Consult stakeholders

User interviews

Establish key objectives

Customer personas

Journey maps

Initial wireframes

Information architecture

Initial UI  exploration

Stakeholder review

Final design

Iterate designs

Present to  stakeholders

Development

Iterate

Multi-variant testing

Research and insights

We interviewed 12 employees spread across different sectors of the business with varying levels of senioririty. We discovered:

There was little difference in learning journeys between teams and individuals

Employees are responsible for directing their own learning and aren’t usually provided guidance

There was an appetite for better understanding the progress of digital projects within the company

Employees wanted to get involved in digital projects happening in order to learn through practice

No clear communication of new content so people didn’t return to the hub

Relatable case studies or examples would be more engaging

Those interviewed wanted learning in snippets that could be done in short bursts so they could fit it in around their working hours

Personas and journeys

From speaking to users I identified 4 user personas that showed distinctly different behaviour and mindset. Once we had a clear idea of who the different audience segments were, we could assess the difference in their journeys, cater to their needs and communicate to each segment slightly differently.

Considerations

The Digital Hub was to be located within the Novartis intranet and only available internally. Because of this it needed to be built on the existing Sharepoint platform and had to have modular sections available with shortcodes so content could be produced quickly by the Novartis Digital Capability team.

User interface

Deliverables

We handed over a comprehensive breakdown of the information architecture, personas, user journeys and finished visual designs for both standalone and template pages to an external development agency. In addition to this we taught the Digital Capability team how to work in agile sprints effectively and they saw a significant increase in delivery pace.

Finished designs

Finished page and template designed awaiting content from the client.

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