The team at the Government Property Agency (GPA) came to us because their staff were struggling to find the information they needed to do their jobs. Their intranet was hindering instead of helping.
They initially asked us to help improve the search. But search effectiveness is about more than just the tech – it relies on the quality of information available. If we wanted to help GPA staff find what they needed, we knew we had to tackle it from both ends.
The details
- Project type: Intranet
- Software: WordPress and AWS
- Industry: Public sector
Services delivered
- Discovery
- UX/UI design
- Technical development
- Content design and writing support
- Delivery management
- Support and maintenance
- Continuous improvement
The challenges
Rebuilding trust in the intranet
Staff, new and old, couldn’t find the information they needed, they didn’t trust the intranet to help and they weren’t using it as a result.
New starters with no knowledge of how the organisation is structured
The GPA was growing fast, with many new starters joining from the private sector. They needed quick access to information so that they could quickly settle in and work efficiently.
Two intranets to navigate
To make matters worse, there were two intranets to choose from – GPA’s and the wider Cabinet Office one. Some information overlapped, and some only applied to GPA. It wasn’t always clear where to look.
Vast amounts of content
With more than 550 pages and posts, the volume of information was overwhelming. Whatever solution we proposed, it had to make it easy for the comms team to keep content up to date, organised and consistent.
How we solved GPA’s challenges
The tech
GPA were already using WordPress for their intranet. During discovery, it became clear that sticking with WordPress – with its powerful and flexible content management system – would give GPA both the flexibility and structure they needed to transform their intranet. And because the comms team were already familiar with WordPress as a content management system (CMS), it meant their learning curve would be much quicker.
Upgrading the search to find information fast
Finding information quickly was the whole point of this project, so we needed to upgrade WordPress’s search to surface the right content and help users find what they needed faster.
Relevanssi gave the GPA team full control over what gets searched and how results are prioritised. WP Facet added instant filtering, so users and admins could narrow down results and find what they needed faster. Together, these plugins gave the team the tools to adapt the search themselves without needing our support.
The process
Detailed discovery
Before building anything, we needed to understand what people – users, the comms team, and senior leaders – needed from the intranet. We ran surveys, focus groups and reviewed analytics to get a clear picture.
This allowed us to understand each task that people expected the intranet to be able to help them with, and where and how they would expect to find it. (We found that roughly half of users preferred search, while the rest used navigation. Sometimes users just needed a quick link or form. Others – especially new starters – needed guidance, too.)
What stood out the most though, was that trust in the intranet was incredibly low. We didn’t just need to fix the intranet, we needed to rebuild trust and reactivate users too.
With this goal in mind, and a solid understanding of user needs, we created detailed user journeys and a roadmap of recommended improvements. We now had a clear path to follow.
A future-proofed structure
The new intranet needed a sound, logical structure and a clear way to categorise the content. It had to meet all the user needs, work for new starters, and reduce the risk of the intranet becoming cluttered and confusing again as content grew over time.
We designed a new structure based on users’ expectations, not solely on organisational structure (as most intranets are typically organised). And we followed one key rule: each piece of information should only live in one place.
To avoid confusion with the Cabinet Office intranet, we added short summaries and links to any shared content. This meant it would appear in a search on the GPA intranet without duplicating information – helping users find the right content and trust that it was accurate.
We tested the structure with real content to prove that it worked in practice. Once we knew it would work in practice, we set clear guidelines to help maintain consistency over the long term.
Powerful custom post types
Discovery revealed two main behaviours: people were either browsing for news and updates, or searching for information to help them do their job. We also identified different needs within the information category:
- General information
- Tools (such as forms, links or software) needed to complete a job
- Guides on how to use those tools
- Policies and procedures
Using WordPress’ custom post types, we created modules for each content type. This brought several benefits:
- It made it easier for the comms team to add content, and helped keep the format consistent.
- Visual cues for each post type helped users quickly understand what they’re looking at, building familiarity and, in turn, trust.
- These modules could be embedded across the site and one change would apply everywhere. This reduces both the workload for the comms team and the risk of confusing people with out of date or conflicting content.
A fresh look to help rebuild trust
Our UI designers completely redesigned the look and feel in line with GPA’s brand. It helped signal that this was a completely reimagined digital service, not just a few updates.
Support for writing
It became clear in discovery that much of the content needed rewriting and reorganising. GPA had limited in-house capacity, so we stepped in to help. Using a content design approach, we trained the team, provided writing and project management support and created writing guides. In just over a month, and with a huge collaborative effort, we helped the team get over 120 pages of content written, edited and signed off in time.
Parallel workstreams to hit the deadline
The scope of the project had grown, but we still needed to hit GPA’s deadline. To speed things up, we ran the content, design and build phases in parallel and kept close comms between the teams to make sure everything stayed in sync. After accessibility and penetration testing, and some close collaboration with their Standards and Assurance Lead, we were happy that the intranet met the Cabinet Office’s high standards. The intranet was ready for launch and the team handled the switchover seamlessly.
The impact
The project was delivered on time and within a carefully controlled budget, despite ending up as a much bigger brief than initially thought.
With dramatically improved content, a more intuitive structure, and a more powerful and accurate search, GPA staff now can find the information they need, when they need it.
And with writing guides, training and more efficient workflows in place, it’s now far easier for GPA teams to keep the intranet up to date. (And far less likely that content will sprawl and become stale again).
All in all, a hugely successful project that has reduced time spent searching for information, rebuilt trust and given GPA an effective and efficient tool to support their daily work.