A new intranet designed to create a space for employees to connect, feel valued, and better understand their contribution to the success of Salini Impregilo and its evolving global presence.
Salini Impregilo (now 'Webuild') is an Italian construction and civil engineering firm specializing in complex, sustainable infrastructure construction. After a merger and a period of significant growth, its once award-winning intranet, "@work" was now failing to keep up with the needs of its expanding global workforce of over 35k people in 50 countries.
In developing a new Intranet, Salini hoped to once again offer its people a world-class digital employee experience. One that would become the destination for employees to gain a unique perspective on the world of Salini Impregilo, built with its users' needs at the forefront.
Launched with overwhelmingly positive adoption, "@work" would go on to be recognized, winning the:
Intranet Italia Champions
An event dedicated to the latest digital trends in internal communications
Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g)
Recognised by NN/g as part of the 2022 edition of the 'Intranet Design Annual'
Both awards specifically acknowledging "@work" for its focus on accessibility, inclusivity, user experience, and innovative design.
For this project, we'd be working alongside two other agencies within the Reply network. Bitmama Reply led on content and user research, Cluster Reply development engineering and Avvio Reply (us) on strategy evolution and design.
Working alongside a team of three engineers and a product manager, I led the visual design for the new intranet, developing a SharePoint-compatible interface and design system from the ground up.
In addition, I'd also be taking on a branding role to create a more robust brand mark since it would feature prominently in promotional activities for the new site.
Having received findings from the initial research phase, it was clear that the current intranet had outlived its original value. Users had become increasingly frustrated with the existing site drawing particular attention to issues including:
User interaction was also low outside of Italy (we could assume that it hadn't been adopted in newer territories), all of which led to declining numbers of user interactions.
With this in mind, we formulated a strategy to fix this - we'd set goals focused on reducing friction and opening new opportunities for our users to access information and interact with the broader business.
The existing intranet had significant limitations - most prominently, a lack of consistency and flexibility in the design and its templates. A knock-on effect to this was the dispersion of communications through informal channels, such as emails and team sites. These communications were often off-brand and hidden from most other employees, with no formal record of ever existing.
To address these issues, we proposed a new universal page framework. By allocating content into a series of zones, each serving a specific function or interaction type - we'd aim to establish a consistent rhythm and hierarchy absent from the previous site, resulting in a more consistent and enjoyable browsing experience.
In addition, we'd give content creators the flexibility to shape their content through web parts and widgets, encouraging them to use a centralized resource to create and distribute content. This would increase brand consistency, promote transparency, and ensure everyone was on the same page.
Having gathered user feedback, I'd look to examples of innovative intranet design elsewhere - everything from adopting an "Intranet everywhere" approach and customizable user interfaces to facilitating interactions and knowledge sharing.
Good input results in sound output; the goal was to expand our knowledge of existing patterns and innovations and put these ideas on the table. Wanting to bring these ideas to life for the client, I created a series of homepage mock-ups that showcased these new features and illustrated their potential benefits for our users. I also brought in the development lead to present to ensure that these ideas were not just pipe dreams but were feasible within the limitations of Sharepoint.
These sessions would reveal a new unforeseen challenge - senior stakeholders had a very particular vision for the homepage design, and any further project development would depend on this vision being achieved.
This led to an intense period of design iterations at the client's Milan HQ. Working tirelessly to align our vision with the senior stakeholders to achieve the desired visual aesthetic while also being mindful not to compromise our goal of producing a user-friendly, future-proofed design centered around our user.
To promote the new site, a launch campaign would be essential. However, before proceeding with a campaign, we needed to come up with a name. The client originally wanted to rebrand to detach employees entirely from "@work" and its negative connotations and embrace a new intranet. While we understood their reasoning, we didn't necessarily agree. After all, the previous site had once been an award-winner and had only faltered recently.
The original ID was problematic, it lacked balance and became near illegible at smaller sizes - not ideal for a digital asset. However, since it was an established brand mark, we saw the potential to improve its functionality with some adjustments. By redrawing the '@' symbol to better balance its stroke, character heights, and kerning, we delivered a more polished design, one befitting its position as a subsidiary of the parent brand.
The successful completion of this work depended on a close working relationship between a network of agencies. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, our development partners dropped their inclusion four months into the job, leaving us with a resourcing gap. No longer having a developer in the client's territory (It was a client requirement to be based in Italy), we reached out to our partners at Bitmama to fulfill the requirement. With Avvio Reply struggling to make the job economically viable, Bitmama Reply would now complete the remainder of the outstanding work, with me pivoting from developing documentation and onboarding to readying the design for final hand-off.
Though my involvement may have ended early, it was still a rewarding experience. I'm proud that I stepped up and challenged the client when I felt necessary, not knowing if it would work out. Fortunately, it did, and I'm grateful for the support from my colleagues.
Leaving the job before completion is always disappointing, but it had a happy ending. The completed site won a place in the NN/g Neilson 10 best Intranets of 2022.