eLINC: The UNFCU Intranet - A Case Study
2003
In 2003, the nearly 60-year-old United Nations Federal Credit Union set an initiative to build a new corporate Intranet for their 350+ employees. Their current site at the time consisted of a table of contents page directing employees to a small list of sub-sections, each separately built in Front Page by a representative of each department. There was no design unity to the site, no consistent navigation, no organization--but plenty of broken links, large animated .gifs, and loud audio clips. I was hired on a contract basis in May 2003 to design and launch the new site.
As the sole developer& designer on the project, guided by loose requirements from an administrative committee, I was able to exert a great deal of control over the new site. My primary focus was on organizing the navigation and layout of the site, creating a consistent and aesthetically pleasing experience, and designing a home page with room for all the Alerts and notifications that needed to be displayed. In December 2003, I completed and launched the site, named eLINC: Employees Learn, Inform, Network & Connect. I gave a training presentation to all New York staff and receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. On the strength of the project, I was asked to become a full-time employee of UNFCU.
2004-2006
Over the next three years, eLINC became a far more integral part of UNFCU employees' daily lives than the previous Intranet site had been. All operational and HR announcements were disseminated through the site, instead of email. All work and employee-related documentation was stored in new repositories. Major projects, such as a physical move from Manhattan to Long Island City, were conducted with supporting documentation and information provided exclusively on the Intranet. I developed new components regularly, adding new sections, features, and functionality. More alerts, banners, and information began to be included on the home page.
2007
By late 2006, it had become clear that the site had outgrown its design, and improvements needed to be made. I initiated a new project to redesign the Intranet again. Finished and launched in March 2007, this new update did not re-structure the site itself, but was primarily a cosmetic redesign to make the site more readable, easier to navigate, and better able to accommodate future growth. The new homepage was cleaner and more spacious, and less overwhelmed with colors and distractions. Important system alerts became more visible and more legible. Major initiatives had a stronger presence on the home page, with room for large graphics and text sections. Alerts, links, colors, and navigation were tweaked to make the site even more user-friendly, taking into account suggestions and requests that had been made over the years since the first launch.
I am very proud of my work on the UNFCU Intranet. It has been very rewarding to consistently work on a long-term basis on a single site, making it grow and change along with the needs of the company and its employees. I have received almost uniformly excellent feedback, and have always attempted to incorporate user suggestions into revisions and new developments. I hope that my work has helped contribute to the success of the company, as the technologies and techniques I have learned while working on this site have contributed to my own growth as a web developer.
Features of the UNFCU Intranet:
- Over 1,000 pages of content
- Built in ASP, with CSS and server-side includes
- Integration of Windows Active Directory/Active Roles group access for secure areas (2007)
- Emergency alert bar, displayed on all pages (2007)
- Javascript tab-browsing on home page (2007)
- Automatic highlighting of same-day postings
- Sortable staff list from Access DB
- Searchable/sortable announcements from DB
- Admin pages for users to update certain content
- Dozens of forms with email and/or database functionality
- Text area optimized for print
- Optimized for 1024x768 and Internet Explorer, per company mandate for browser and screen-size
