Providing users with an intuitive and seamless user experience (UX) as they browse your website or web portal is key to increasing conversions and decreasing the bounce rate.
However, UX is usually an afterthought when designing websites and portals for employees.
Many companies burden their workers with dull, time-consuming interfaces and software that compels them to avoid accessing these portals and using them to their fullest potential.
According to one stat, this hampers employee creativity as they end up spending 67 minutes a day to hunt for relevant information, and almost 39 minutes reproducing communications – tasks that should take no longer than a few minutes.
Bad employee user experience (UX) caused by poorly-designed intranet can result in lost productivity, retention issues, and unnecessary expenses.
So it’s safe to assume that better intranet design and UX leads to better results.
Let’s learn more about how investing in UX proves beneficial for your company.
Benefits of boosting user experience and portal design
There are several reasons why companies should prioritize UX and design. Some are listed below:
Increased productivity
The complex navigation system can cause employee frustration and reduce work productivity.
But you can ensure higher output when your company intranet is more intuitive and better organized. This way, the content becomes more accessible and employees get the right information within a few minutes.
Cost savings
Finance teams are often unable to understand the ROI of a well-designed intranet, not considering the fact that the higher upfront costs of getting it right can pay off spectacularly in the long run.
The ROI of an improved UX varies from $2 to $100, and that’s a given.
For example, when your intranet software is easy to use and understand; your IT expenses are reduced considerably as there is no downtime and constant repairs to pay for.
Similarly, employee training needs are curtailed since the portal is so intuitive and easy to use.
Increased collaboration and employee morale
Make sure to brand your intranet to allow employees a sense of ownership – it should be an extension of your business image and adhere to its values and mission strategy.
Building ownership this way can result in increased usage, as employees spend their time learning, interacting, and exploring.
Better communication
Poor intranet design can make it too difficult for employees to find relevant info, policies, contact info, and other data. It’s highly recommended to clean your house with a user-centered design to guarantee the content is easily found, and remove anything outdated.
How to improve web portal design and user experience
Here’s how you can enhance UX for employees in just four simple steps:
Find opportunities for improvement
Use your existing data to see what you need to work on. You can also conduct interviews and surveys to collect internal feedback.
Also, review a few of the relevant metrics such as top search keywords to identify your employees’ needs and figure out what they are looking for, so you can make it easy to access.
Optimize your intranet design
Do a full audit of content and navigation to identify inconsistency, sloppy UI mechanics, and hidden options. Create a new sitemap that allows for relevancy and intuitiveness and removes redundancy. For content, create new if it’s missing, upgrade it if it needs polishing, and remove outdated info.
Build prototypes
Build a clickable user interface (UI) wireframes for your key web-pages to address customer’s needs and making your content easily accessible and usable. Try using iterative an Agile development process for improved feedback.
Test it to ensure UX optimization
This is the final step, where you have to try out the updated design, functionality, and content in your intranet. Test it with real-time users to make sure UX is fully optimized.
In conclusion
An intranet is only as good as the user experience and design it offers. When used correctly, it can boost productivity, improve communication, and streamline processes saving both time and money.
Looking for someone to design your intranet system? We can help deliver the best intranet web portal design and UX in the market. Get a Quote!
