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| View the site |
Proprietary. (The VeriSign Sales Portal is available only
to employees.) |
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| Background |
VeriSign’s sales portal just wasn’t working.
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Sales reps couldn’t find what they were looking for
easily — and when they found something it was often in the wrong
format. They had no idea when documents were updated and old versions
replaced. |
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They needed an organization and an interface that made
sense to them. They needed quick and easy ways to search and sort related
documents. |
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| The Project |
Interviewed
users and stakeholders. Created user profiles and use-case scenarios.
VeriSign has grown through acquisition. Its sales portal was meant to
help standardize the sales cycle for a diverse sales force accustomed
to different corporate cultures — and selling to prospective customers
ranging from mom-and-pop online businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises.
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I started the project by conducting in-depth, hour-long
interviews with both the sales reps and the stakeholders. With the stakeholders,
I focused on what they wanted the sales portal to do to serve the business.
With the sales reps, I focused on the part the sales portal played in
their routine. I learned about their needs and frustrations. |
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From the interviews with the stakeholders, I was able to
distill the top business objectives for the project. |
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From the interviews with the sales reps, I was able to
create user profiles and use-case scenarios. |
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Conducted a card sorting exercise.
Created a content taxonomy and a metadata schema. The organization
of the existing sales intranet was baffling to the sales reps. I next
conducted a card sorting exercise to find out the categories and category
names that were most intuitive to them. The taxonomy was especially crucial
because it had to make sense to both the sales reps using the portal and
the content providers who were posting the content. |
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I also devised a metadata schema for tagging the content.
The metadata tags determined which page each individual piece of content
appeared on. The entire site could consequently be generated dynamically. |
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Built a prototype. Validated
the design through usability testing. Created a design guide. I
built a prototype and we tested the new information design, interface,
and organization with sales reps. |
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I made final adjustments to the information design based
on the usability test. I then documented the entire design in a 45-page
wireframe guide. |
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The guide provided the specifications needed to execute
the design. |
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It also stated the principles behind the information design
— and listed the rules for adhering to the original intent of the
design. The guide gave VeriSign everything it needed to make sure its
sales portal remained consistent and well-structured as it evolved. |
