Techconnect was a site created to assist the IT support needs a Monsanto employee might have.  User testing was done over time, resulting in employees expressing that even though the site helped resolved a specific issue, it was also confusing, difficult to navigate and overall wasn’t a pleasant experience. 

A normal first step for myself is to sketch out my first draft.  For this project I took it one step further using tape and additional pieces of paper to make my sketch “interactive”, showing how navigation and additional pages may look. 

From here I digitized my drawing within a program called “Sketch” which allows me to setup a color guide, icons and font choices. 

The first version was talked about, tweaked, and updated time and time again.  From white board sessions to post-it note mark ups on a poster sized document, the design and layout was changed and messaged over multiple months.  

Elements and components were dropped, added, or moved around as the slow but sure collaboration process took place.

The finalized version definitely took hold of better color choices, card layouts and a stronger utilization of “material design” components. 

With that, it goes without saying that none of this would have happened without a strong team effort taking place.   Having that strong, initial design foundation is key but everything else came to light after collaborating with other Product Design team members and Leads.

Testing took place before initial rollout and it continues to carry a strong roll as the site evolves, becoming more efficient with each new version released. 

Currently, responsive design is now priority so mobile devices can access the site.  In a perfect world, "mobile first" would have been utilized at the beginning.