Sync Navigation Study Findings ReportJanuary 2012

Intranet Center of Excellence

Objectives:

• Grouping and Association• What type of content do users expect to find within each given category?• Which pages do users commonly associate with each other?

• Naming and Labeling• Are the current primary navigation names clear and intuitive to users?

– Home– Our Company– About Me– My Workplace

• How do they compare against the experimental category names?– Home– About Merck– Working Here– Be Social– Resources

Study Objectives

Study Background:• A large sample size is needed in order to develop a navigation structure that is

intuitive to the greatest number of users

• Due to time constraints, we do not have a representative sample, but we have enough data to recommend a site structure that can be further tested/validated

The Premise:

Study Method:• 2 closed card sorts in each 30-min session: existing sub-pages were presented as cards in a list, and

asked to be shuffled into the pre-labeled categories where users would expect to find them. Users are free to create, remove, and rename categories.

– Card Sort 1: Current Navigation Categories/Labels (Primary Nav)– Card Sort 2: Experimental Navigation Categories/Labels (Primary Nav)– Note: “My Support Center” was not provided as a category, because:

1) its sub-pages do not currently exist at the same hierarchical level as the other pages tested2) scenario-based testing is more appropriate than page-based for researching help/support navigation (example: HR – Compensation)

Region Organization Sync Portal Usage

(27) Domestic(5) International

(17) GHH(7) MRL(5) MMD(1) Finance(1) Gbl Procurement(1) Global Services

(9) Daily(5) Once a Week(6) Once a Month(6) Rarely or Never

Total 32

Participant Breakdown

Recommendations

Home Our Company Human Resources My Network Tools & Resources

LocationsOrganizationsCountriesLeadershipStrategyPipelineProductsResponsibilityPolicies

CompensationBenefits & WellnessCareer & LearningDiversity & Work Life

My ProfileActivity StreamMy ColleaguesMy CommunitiesMy Documents

Tools & ResourcesKnowledge WebMerck/MSD ChannelsExternal Channels

Based on the data, our recommendations are to:

1. Keep ‘Our Company’ as is.

2. Rename ‘About Me’ to ‘Human Resources’.

3. Group ‘My Profile’ with other social-related pages in a new category: ‘My Network’.

4. Create a new ‘Tools & Resources’ category as a home for tools and resources.

Our Company:

• Grouping: Users strongly agreed on which pages were company-related.– Given the current navigation, company-related pages were grouped with each other

74 – 97% of the time. – Given the experimental navigation, 48 – 84% of the time.

• Naming: Users strongly agreed on the category in which they expected to find these pages– Pages were placed in ‘Our Company’ 81 – 97% of the time.– In ‘About Merck’, 64 – 87% of the time.

• Conclusion: Overall, the current category ‘Our Company’ proved to be a label that is both unambiguous and consistently meets user expectations for content.

Why Keep ‘Our Company’ As Is?

Human Resources:

Grouping• With both the current and experimental categories, users consistently grouped HR pages with

each other, but seldom with other pages including ‘My Profile’.• Under both tests, ‘My Profile’ was far and away most commonly associated with the social

networking pages.

Naming• Users expected ‘My Profile’ but did not expect to find HR pages in ‘About Me’.

– My Profile was placed in ‘About Me’ 97% of the time – HR pages were placed in ‘About Me’ only 6 – 26% of the time.

• Given the current navigation, users disagreed on where to put HR pages – HR pages were placed in ‘My Workplace’ 32 – 45% of the time and in ‘Our Company’ 23 – 52% of the

time.• Given the experimental navigation, there was better consensus, but still not great…

– HR pages were placed in ‘Working Here’ 61 – 71% of the time.

Conclusion• From the data, it’s clear that users expect to see HR pages on their own, but it’s not clear that

‘Working Here’ is the most salient label – why not be direct and use ‘Human Resources’ ?• That the profile is almost always expected to be found in ‘About Me’ does not mean that it

warrants its own separate category. Its consistent association with social pages is the greater takeaway.

Why Create a ‘Human Resources’ Category?

My Network:

Grouping• ‘My Profile’ was associated with the social networking pages more than with any other

pages.– Current Nav: Margin of 13 percentage points– Experimental Nav: Margin of 26 percentage points

• Users were more likely to group the profile with social pages when given the category: ‘Be Social’.– My Profile was grouped with social pages 45 – 58% of the time compared to 39 – 48%

Naming• Given the current navigation, users disagreed on where to place social pages

– Social pages were placed in ‘About Me’ 35 – 45% of the time and in ‘My Workplace’ 38 – 58% of the time.

• Given the experimental navigation, there was much greater consensus on where to place social pages– Social pages were placed in ‘Be Social’ 31 – 96% of the time.

Conclusion• The data indicates that profiles ought to be grouped with social pages, and that users have

little issue with a direct, explicit label such as ‘Be Social’. However, users commonly provided feedback that ‘Be Social’ is not an appropriate label for a work-related platform.

Why Create a ‘My Network’ Category?

Tools & Resources:

Grouping• Users do not clearly associate Tools & Resources with any other page.

– Except for the company pages, the association between Tools & Resources and most other pages was distributed evenly.

• Users seldom grouped Tools & Resources with social networking pages.– Given the current navigation, Tools & Resources was grouped with social pages only 26 – 32% of the

time– Given the experimental navigation, Tools & Resources was grouped with social pages only 3 – 13% of

the time

Naming• Given the current navigation, users disagreed on where to place the Tools & Resources page, but given the

experimental navigation, users generally agreed on ‘Resources’.– Tools & Resources was placed in ‘My Workplace’ 51% of the time and in ‘Home’ 23% of the time.– Tools & Resources was placed in ‘Resources’ 74% of the time.

Conclusion• The data suggests that a distinct ‘Tools & Resources’ category is intuitive and helpful. This is further

supported by the fact that users did not strongly associate the Tools & Resources page with any other type of content.

Why Create a ‘Tools & Resources’ Category?

Conclusions

Our Company ‘Our Company’ is clear and consistently meets user expectations for content.

Human Resources Users expect to see HR pages in a separate category but an ambiguous label such as ‘Working Here’ is not as clear and direct.

My Network Users associate the profile with social pages but feel that ‘Be Social’ is not an appropriate label for a work-related platform.

Tools & Resources Users did not strongly associate the Tools & Resources page with any other type of content and found it intuitive and helpful to have a distinct ‘Tools & Resources’ category.

Next Steps

• Based on preliminary data, neither the current nor experimental navigation categories appear to be ideal.

• We feel that the navigation proposed here addresses many of the concerns uncovered during the study and is a good basis for discussion.

• A follow up study including My Support Center and scenario-based testing using paper prototypes will help validate our recommendation.

Conclusions

Appendix

Items by CategoriesThis spreadsheet depicts the percentage of times each page was placed in a category.

Current Navigation

Items by ItemsThis spreadsheet depicts the percentage of times each page was placed with every other page.

Current Navigation

Tree DiagramThis diagram depicts the 5 main groupings that users created overall when given the current navigation.

Current Navigation

Items by CategoriesThis spreadsheet depicts the percentage of times each page was placed in a category.

Experimental Navigation

Items by ItemsThis spreadsheet depicts the percentage of times each page was placed with every other page.

Experimental Navigation

Tree DiagramThis diagram depicts the 5 main groupings that users created overall when given the experimental navigation.

Experimental Navigation