Employee directory screen from the portal, a grid of people cards. Sample data.

Portal home screen with a search box and counts for employees, events, and resources. Sample data.

Inuvo · 2017

Inuvo Internal Employee Portal

Inuvo needed one place for people, policies, and forms as it merged with a California company. I designed and built it in four weeks.

Role: I led. Sole designer and developer
Team: Just me. The COO, HR, and the Creative/Marketing Director were my stakeholders.
Timeline: Four weeks, concept to launch
Tools: Figma, WordPress, PHP
Platform: Web, internal
Result: 92% fewer HR information requests in the first three months

The problem

HR was the answer to everything.

Inuvo was merging with a company based in California. Overnight, people in several offices needed to learn who worked where, what the policies said, and where the forms lived. Most of those answers sat with HR, so routine questions turned into HR's workload.

The short version: With no self-serve place for basic company information, every routine question landed on HR.

My role

One person, kickoff to launch.

I was the only designer and the only developer. I led the kickoff with the COO, HR, and the Creative/Marketing Director, decided what the portal needed to hold, designed it, built the site and its backend, and coordinated feedback and approvals through launch.

The short version: Being the only designer and developer meant I also had to keep three stakeholders aligned from kickoff to launch.

Research

Ask the people who get the questions.

The research was the kickoff. I sat down with the COO, HR, and the Creative/Marketing Director and worked out what employees needed most and what had to ship in four weeks: an employee directory, an org chart, the handbook, forms, and a resources hub.

The short version: The people who answered employees' questions every day gave me the requirements.

The solution

One place, one search box.

The home page opens with a single question, "What do you need today?", and one search box that covers people, documents, and resources, so nobody has to know which section something lives in.

Portal home screen on a phone, blurred behind the desktop version. Sample data.

Portal home page on desktop: a greeting, one search box for people, docs, and resources, three counts with links, and upcoming events and birthdays. All names and numbers are sample data.

The directory switches between a grid and an org chart, with search by name or title and a department filter. Each profile is built from WordPress custom fields, so one edit updates the live page instead of rebuilding anything by hand. A "5 Facts" section on every profile gives a new hire something to talk about on day one.

Employee directory: a grid of people cards with search by name or title, a department filter, and a toggle between grid view and org chart. All people are sample data.

I also built an events calendar with day, week, and month views, each on its own keyboard shortcut.

Events calendar in month view, with the view switcher open to day, week, and month. Events are color-coded by type. All events are sample data.

The events calendar on a phone: month view with colored dots marking days that have events. All events are sample data.

The short version: One search box on top, and a directory that stays current without anyone rebuilding a page.

The result

Did it work?

92%
fewer HR information requests in the first three months

The portal launched on time with no reported issues, and in the first three months HR saw 92% fewer requests for information.

The short version: Putting the answers in one place took most of the routine questions off HR's plate.

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