UX Design Case Study

Entertainment Company Employee-driven Website

Design Problem

A large entertainment company needed to create a way to improve workplace culture for their employees because recent research revealed that a significant percentage of employees felt undervalued and disconnected from the company mission.

The problem was first discovered during intern exit interviews, when more than half of all interns were ambivalent about wanting to pursue a permanent role with the company despite their initial enthusiasm for working in prestige entertainment. Workplace culture was cited as the primary reason, as many interns felt as though the various business units functioned as silos, and they were exposed to very little culture outside their immediate department.

Initially, stakeholders were interested in devising a solution that would serve to educate and engage interns, however, when asked about how permanent employees might have influenced the interns’ perceptions of the company, they admitted that the disconnect might be a symptom of a larger concern.

Research Methods

Deciding that stakeholders might be more willing to explore the possible root cause of the issue if they had more evidence, I researched third-party reviews (posted to LinkedIn and Indeed) as well as exit interviews performed with permanent employees. The majority of employee sentiment echoed that of the interns, which helped define the need for a company-wide survey.

Working in close collaboration with the Talent Development team, we created an anonymous survey for all employees that explored questions of workplace culture and job satisfaction. In cases where employees raised specific situational problems, we filtered their responses to human resources so as not to dilute the main focus of overall culture. To gain a deeper understanding of the survey results, a selection of team members from each business unit were given a face-to-face interview.

Essentially, our research revealed that employees were not having fun, which in their view was not acceptable for a company built on providing great entertainment experiences. This became our central focus: creating a resource that would give employees a fun, engaging experience while providing a sense of unity and shared purpose.

These results formed the basis for our design pin board mock-up of the information architecture, with the major categories of company values, social connection, insight into the various business units, and recognition. From there, the design team was divided to independently create storyboards of their assigned category, fleshing out the subheading content and flow. Upon completion, the team reconvened to present their work, and the strongest elements were voted on by both the designers and a cross-section of employees.

Prototype Features and Testing

Early prototype iterations were met with enthusiasm over the range of features, especially the ability to network and learn about other departments. However, many users were concerned that the choices might feel overwhelming, that it felt like “work” to wade through all the information. This led to a dashboard portal, where users could customize their experience by selecting areas of interest to view in their feed.

The initial Recognition concept was divisive, as users wondered how the featured employees would be selected. Many worried that the typical performance-based criteria would not be as meaningful or inclusive. This led to hybridizing the section to include employees that are nominated by their teams, ones that are recognized for innovative contributions that led to positive change, and a shout-outs section which could contain any manner of peer-to-peer kudos.

Another insight user testing revealed was that individuals wanted choices about how to use their voice on the communications pages. The massive popularity of videos and podcasts in social media led us to the conclusion that we wanted users to be able to interact by posting either text, video, or audio media.

Other features that resulted from testing insights: employee profile pages that link to LinkedIn, and Idea Booth, a virtual “suggestion box” for employees to voice their ideas.

Project Constraints

This design problem was raised during a growth period, so there were many emerging leader programs that the Talent Development team was in the midst of implementing. Fortunately, early executive support enabled us to obtain a dedicated team of TD professionals that worked part time on the project.

The Covid-19 pandemic posed another challenge, as executives wanted to fast-track the development to respond to widespread employee concerns. With the added stress of furloughs, telecommuting, and general uncertainty, the company felt that the new website would be an ideal vehicle to keep people up-to-date and connected.

Additionally, because of a failed experiment two years ago with a previous employee social experiment, we needed to design a product that would in no way convey that engagement was mandatory.

Key Lessons from the Design Process

During the course of the project, I found that the language is extremely important and needs to hit the right note. We wanted to echo the hip, “real” tone of voice of the main website, but we also found out that we needed to avoid language that was overly trendy as it tended to alienate people in the Baby Boomer / Gen X population.

If I have the opportunity to approach a similar project with the benefit of experience, I would make a point to be more direct with stakeholders about the defining the design problem. I suspected early on that workplace culture might be a significant issue, but I didn’t want to alienate my client by making assertions that sounded judgmental. However, this softer approach meant that arriving at the root cause took longer than necessary. To prepare for future stakeholder meetings, I’ve developed a set of probing questions that I can use to help stakeholders define the real problem more quickly.