Most intranets have humble beginnings that grow and grow and then, like a weed, grow out of control. Fidelity’s intranet began at the grass-roots level in the mid-1990s, and since then has undergone three formal design iterations – with many smaller enhancements along the way.
In 1997, the first official corporate intranet introduced content integrity standards, a cohesive information architecture, and a standard look and feel. In 2002, the introduction of portal technology allowed content to be targeted to employees based on criteria such as business unit, region or role, and enabled each employee to customize the homepage to best meet their needs. The portal’s user interface got an extreme makeover in 2006, with a streamlined appearance, added functionality, and improved performance.
At each step, Fidelity’s internal usability lab was a full partner, helping to ensure that the intranet became not only a primary communications vehicle, but home to dozens of online applications – making it an integral part of how work gets done at Fidelity.
The Fidelity Central portal is being showcased in the next webinar edition of the Intranet Insider World Tour on December 13 (2-3:15 pm EST).
This will prove to be a very good case study as Fidelity has learned a lot of lessons over the years. During this webinar you’ll learn:
- How getting input and feedback from users is critical to the success of an intranet
- How to use the following techniques for getting that input at various stages of design and development:
- Focus groups
- Card-sorting exercises (using physical cards or online)
- Early conceptual usability testing
- Traditional usability testing
- Online studies to address specific questions (e.g., response time)
- You will see concrete examples of these from the evolution of Fidelity's intranet
- Why standards and flexibility both matter
- Growing your intranet from a communications tool to a productivity tool
To register for this webinar, visit Intranet Insider World Tour: Fidelity Investments.