In 2000 the VP of corporate marketing at Applied Materials recognized the need to bridge islands of information across Applied’s vast global corporate empire, which included 7 separate subsidiaries, many of which had their own presidents.
I served as information architect and product manager for the Specific Impulse team of interaction designers and developers, and we designed and built Applied’s global iMarketing intranet, used by thousands of executives and marketing professionals worldwide for file and media management.
The modular control panel allowed for easy plug-in of custom applications and widgets. A template-based UI design enabled the portal to be redesigned visually, without having to re-load contents. Content management and administration was delegated to departmental admins, distributing maintenance while centralizing community access. The system also featured LDAP personalization and user accounts,Verity text search, and robust management reporting on usage analytics.
Supporting high traffic demands, tens of thousands of files, and robust extranet security, the system was completed on time and within budget, and remained in production for many years and through several redesigns.