Information Architecture for a 12,000+ Page Intranet
Client: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Agency: BORN XDS
Services: Information Architecture, Tree Testing, Content Governance
Related Practices: UX, Business Analysis
Ahead of redesign and development, Dana Farber Cancer Institute engaged BORN to evaluate and reimagine the IA of its employee intranet,
DFCI Online.
The Challenge
The Intranet had too much content. It was trying to be all things to all people.
​
-
Overwhelming Volume of Content: DFCI Onlline contains 12,000 individual pages and serves 15,000 employees across far-ranging divisions including: clinical faculty, researchers, nurses, finance, HR, and communications.
-
Reliance on On-Site Search: Everyone used the search bar found in the utility navigation. However, the intranet's on-site search function was based on the literal words in a query and not the content with the most semantic or topical relevance.
-
Lack of Content Governance: Even for HR and communications professionals who managed the intranet, content governance had no formal workflow.
The Approach
To address these challenges, I collaborated with a UX strategist and Dana-Farber’s Communications team. Together, we led a creative workshop that included a card-sorting exercise. This exercise aimed to create a coherent and logical hierarchy of pages, focusing on the following areas:
​
-
Utility Navigation
-
Main Navigation
-
Individual department and team hubs
-
Homepage content hierarchy
