OPEN SPACE New: the ServiceNow Portal Playbook →

Making ServiceNow better.

One experience at a time. nowbetter is my open space for building great experiences on ServiceNow and sharing what I learn — playbooks, patterns and experiments for the community, partners and customers who want the platform to feel as good as it works.

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UI Builder Service Portal

The playbook

The ServiceNow Portal Playbook

A step-by-step guide to designing and building an employee or customer portal on ServiceNow — from the first discovery workshop to go-live and beyond.

7 phases · 32 steps · 7 min read Read the playbook

01 4 steps Discover Understand who the portal is for, what they need to get done, and how you will know it worked. 02 4 steps Choose your approach Pick the right foundation and delivery setup before you build anything. 03 5 steps Information architecture Organise everything around how people think — not around your org chart. 04 5 steps Design Wireframe the key journeys, then build a small design system you can reuse everywhere. 05 5 steps Build Configure first, extend second, customise last. 06 5 steps Test Test like your users will — on every device, with every role. 07 4 steps Launch & improve Go live in steps, measure everything, and keep improving. Ready? Start with phase 1

Service Portal Employee Center UI Builder Workspace Now Assist Next Experience Design systems Accessibility Service Portal Employee Center UI Builder Workspace Now Assist Next Experience Design systems Accessibility

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Service PortalWidgets, themes and portal UX Employee CenterContent, taxonomy and journeys UI Builder & WorkspaceNext Experience pages and components Now Assist & AIGenAI patterns users trust Design systemsTokens, theming and consistency AccessibilityInclusive portals and forms

About the author

Hi, I'm Shamil Ibrahim — ServiceNow platform architect and UI/UX specialist.

I design and build ServiceNow experiences people enjoy, and I'm growing into product management and enterprise architecture.

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