Steve Arnold has written an article on a 12-step program for implementing search. To quote: Step 2. You need to know a great deal about the content you plan to index. You want to know how much content you must index; how much change occurs in the content; how much ...
Monthly Archives: March 2008
March 31, 2008
A 12-step program for behind-the-firewall search
Categorised under: Search tools
Read more | Comments Off
March 31, 2008
Composite pages and embeddable content
Gadgetopia have posted an article on composite pages and embeddable content. To quote: A composite page is a single page, made out of pieces. Your users can add a “Page” to the system, then add “Sections” to the page. They can pick from different types of sections, like “text with ...
Categorised under: Content management
Read more | Comments Off
March 29, 2008
Photo: Angled lines on Mount Rigi
Angled lines (II) I'm going to start blogging one of my photos each weekend, as part of a committment to focus more on non-work activities. If I'm travelling, I'll select one of the photos taken in the previous week. Between trips, I'll choose ...
Categorised under: Photos
Read more | Comments Off
March 28, 2008
Enterprise RSS Day of Action - 24th April
Moves are well underway to organise an Enterprise RSS Day of Action for 24 April 2008. To quote: The purpose of the Enterprise RSS Day of Action on the Thursday 24th April is to help raise awareness for the potential for Enterprise RSS. For more information, visit the The Enterprise ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Read more | Comments Off
March 28, 2008
Across the globe for WWF
It's not every day you need a world map to plan a project. We're just starting work for WWF, researching intranet needs in field locations across the globe. This was a draft map, and the final list of locations we'll be visiting ...
Categorised under: Uncategorized
Read more | Comments Off
March 27, 2008
Communicating with employees who are not connected to the intranet
Jane McConnell has written a post on communicating with employees who are not connected to the intranet. To quote: Technology has advanced since then, and companies are doing things ranging from employee radio (a large bank in France is experimenting with this), videos in places where people collect, external web ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 27, 2008
Your intranet app
Anu Gupta has reposted a funny cartoon on enterprise application usability. To quote: Having spent a fair amount of time consulting on intranets and internal applications, as well as being on the receiving end as a user, one thing that's *almost* invariably true is the following...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 26, 2008
Search survey
Sue Feldman (research VP, content technologies at IDC) and Michelle Manafy (editor of EContent magazine and conference programmer for the Enterprise Search Summit) are running a survey on enterprise search tool selection. It should only take 2-4 minutes to complete, and the results will be shared on the Enterprise ...
Categorised under: Search tools
Read more | Comments Off
March 26, 2008
Warning: third-party application usability is bad for your health
Frank Spillers has written an article on the usability of third-party applications. To quote: What many companies are doing is writing usability guarantees into the contracts so that vendors are forced to adhere to your standards before they win the contract. This is the most direct and legally binding way to ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 26, 2008
Resist redesign
Gerry McGovern has written an article on resisting redesigns. To quote: Your website is working. But it's four years old. What should you do? Leave it alone. Or focus on making it work even better. But let me tell you this, making it work better has rarely anything to do ...
Categorised under: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 25, 2008
Bridging the designer–user gap
Jakob Nielsen writes about bridging the designer–user gap. To quote: The wider the gap between your situation and the users, their tasks, and their context, the more you need a systematic usability process to inform and adjust your design. In most design projects, the gap is wide indeed and you usually ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 25, 2008
Measure twice, cut once with web CMS
The CMS Myth have published a piece on measure twice, cut once when it comes to CMS projects. To quote: Carpenters, of all people, have a great saying, one that everyone responsible for a CMS project should tattoo on their forearm, or at least write on their office wall in ...
Categorised under: Content management
Read more | Comments Off
March 20, 2008
How to innovate right now
Scott Berkun has written an article on how to innovate right now. To quote: he biggest secret of innovation is that anyone can do it. The reason is simple: It’s just not that hard. Look up the word “innovate” in any dictionary and see what it actually means, instead of ...
Categorised under: Knowledge management
Read more | Comments Off
March 20, 2008
SharePoint sessions for Intranet Leadership Forum members
Current members of our Intranet Leadership Forum have expressed an interest in deepening their understanding of SharePoint. To that end, we've organised for Michael Sampson, a collaboration and SharePoint expert, to fly out from New Zealand. He will be running sessions for members in early April, and these will look ...
Categorised under: Intranet Leadership Forum
Read more | Comments Off
March 18, 2008
The Content Wrangler Community
A new social network for content management folk has been recently launched: The Content Wrangler Community. It's early days yet, but anything that helps to connect those working in this challenging field must surely be helpful. Connect up and start chatting...
Categorised under: Content management
Read more | Comments Off
March 17, 2008
IA mentoring podcast
Patrick Kennedy has been featured in a podcast on IA mentoring. To quote: I am now live on the air…on the net. The latest edition of Gerry Gaffney’s UXpod, user experience podcast, features yours truly speaking on the subject of mentoring. It follows my presentation at last year’s OZCHI and ...
Categorised under: Information architecture
Read more | Comments Off
March 17, 2008
Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website
Macquarie University is an innovative university located on a single campus in Sydney, Australia. Macquarie was founded in 1964 as a second-generation Australian university with a focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. In line with Macquarie's reputation as one of Australia's most innovative institutions, ...
Categorised under: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 17, 2008
Exploring the Intranet Hive (part 2)
This is the second of a two-part article on the Intranet Hive. For a complete view of the Intranet Hive, the two articles should be read together. The Intranet Hive is a new concept that provides awareness of the activities that underpin the ongoing management of an intranet. The Hive informs ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 16, 2008
Two workshops at the IA Summit
Just a reminder that I'm running not one but two workshops at the upcoming IA Summit (Miami, April 10-14). In particular, my one-day intranet workshop is the full masterclass that I run all over the globe, so this is worth heading down to Miami just for this. The two workshops:...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
Read more | Comments Off
March 16, 2008
Spam from corporate communications?
Jane McConnell has posted an interesting observation on "spam from corporate communications". To quote: This is the second firsthand anecdote I have heard recently where intranet users have complained about "spam from corporate communications". In the first case, a few months ago, it was an IT person who told me ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 16, 2008
Closing the communication loop
Steve Baty has written an article on closing the communication loop, in the context of usability activities. To quote: Call centers, in particular, provide us with a real-time snapshot of our customer’s needs. Incorporating issue logs into our project research allows us to react to those needs on a regular ...
Categorised under: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 14, 2008
Thoughts on Google’s 20% time
Scott Berkun reports on Google's 20% time, as a way of driving innovation. To quote: Google’s 20% time is more of an attitude and culture than a rule. First, hourly time isn’t tracked there, so there’s no way to enforce or even know what percentage of time people are spending ...
Categorised under: Knowledge management
Read more | Comments Off
March 13, 2008
Community of practice success story
Mark Schenk has written a post on a case study from Rio Tinto on their community of practices. To quote: Rio Tinto has made a short video on one of the stories and this is publicly available on their website. Well worth checking out and using as an example of ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Knowledge management
Read more | Comments Off
March 11, 2008
Awards ceremony in the US
I'm pleased to announce that we've organised an awards ceremony for the Intranet Innovation Awards, to be held at the KMWorld & Intranets 2008 conference in the US (San Jose, September 23-25). This will give a great opportunity for winners to showcase their work at one of the leading ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 7, 2008
Staff directories report second edition - have you got a good case study?
We are currently working on a second edition of our Staff Directories report. As part of this, we are looking for further examples of good design and functionality, to include in the report. In particular, we are seeking: screenshots of good staff directory functionality case studies of staff directory projects. examples of "expertise directories" ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 7, 2008
Some general questions (and answers) about site search analytics
Louis Rosenfeld has written an article on site search analytics. To quote: Knowing what keywords users enter to search in Google, Yahoo! or other web-wide search engines to reach your site is incredibly valuable. It also enables you to fine-tune a keyword ad campaign; perhaps, a campaign that could be ...
Categorised under: Search tools
Read more | Comments Off
March 6, 2008
Speaking to the Geneva Web Group
Just a quick note to say that I'll be speaking at the Geneva Web Group on Monday March 17th. This is what I'll be covering: Intranets must succeed. While they have progressed greatly over the last decade, they still struggle to get the support and recognition they need to truly ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
Read more | Comments Off
March 6, 2008
Enhancing dashboard value and user experience
Joe Lamantia has written an article on enhancing dashboard value and user experience, the fifth in a series of articles on designing portals. To quote: Portals gather and present content from a wide variety of sources, making the assembled items and streams more valuable for users by reducing the costs ...
Categorised under: Content management, Information architecture
Read more | Comments Off
March 6, 2008
Presentation: Understanding staff needs and how to meet them
| View These are the slides from my keynote presentation at the IntraTeam conference ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design
Read more | Comments Off
March 5, 2008
How to win an Intranet Innovation Award
We received a hugely diverse range of entries for the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards in 2007. To make things easier, we've pulled together some observations and suggestions for this year's entrants. Browse through this ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 5, 2008
2008 Intranet Innovation Awards are now open for entries!
The 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards are now open for submissions, with a closing date of 16 May 2008. All intranet teams are encouraged to enter their innovative approaches to the design or delivery intranets. This may be may be an entirely new piece of intranet ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Read more | Comments Off
March 3, 2008
A moderated approach to user-generated content
Marisa Peacock has written an article on moderation and user-generated content. To quote: Adding it all up, user-generated content isn’t the menacing monster that legal feared it to be, after all. In fact, with more people moderating than generating, it seems that user-generated content is apt to be more self-censoring ...
Categorised under: Content management, Enterprise 2.0
Read more | Comments Off
March 1, 2008
Workshops: information management and information architecture
Just a quick reminder that the early-bird rate is just about to close for two of our upcoming workshops: Innovative Information Management Planning Sydney, 2 April 2008 Cairo Walker outlines new approaches to information management that provide practical ways of delivering solutions even in complex organisations. Information Architecture Essentials Sydney, 9 April 2008 One-day ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
Read more | Comments Off
