Ideally, all intranet design projects should adopt a design approach which consults with users throughout the process, from identifying needs to input and evaluation of structure and design. This is not always possible. Time and cost limitations occasionally result in corners being cut with testing often being the victim, because ...
Monthly Archives: October 2009
October 29, 2009
Some testing is better than none
Categorised under: Intranets, Usability & user-centered design
Tags: Intranets, usability testing
October 29, 2009
About the intranet, on the intranet
The intranet is not just a channel for the business to communicate news and information. It is also a valuable tool for the intranet team itself to engage with the wider organisation. To that end, the intranet team should have a section on the intranet devoted to the intranet itself. This ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles
Tags: governance, Intranets
October 29, 2009
Seven roles of the intranet homepage
There is no more contested or challenging page on the intranet than the homepage. As it is the most visible page on the site, everyone wants their piece of the homepage. There is also contention about the role of the intranet homepage: Should the homepage be mostly about news? Is navigation the ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles, Usability & user-centered design
October 27, 2009
What every intranet manager should know
Patrick C Walsh has written about job adverts for intranet managers. To quote: I get email updates from an intranet group and recently they’ve added a jobs section. So I’ve been having a quick dip in to see what the jobs are like in the intranet world of today. This ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: governance, intranet managers, Intranets
October 27, 2009
Creating a social media policy for your department – here’s over 100 examples to draw on
Craig Thomler has blogged on a list of social media policies. To quote: Social Media Governance recently released a list of 106 social media policies that can be drawn on, including nearly thirty from government (including the APSC's Circular 2008/8: Interim protocols for online media participation).
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: governance, social media
October 27, 2009
Masterclass on SharePoint Collaboration and Governance in Sydney
Michael Sampson will be running his masterclass on SharePoint Collaboration and Governance in Sydney on December 1. Michael is the author of two books on using SharePoint for collaboration, and I've reviewed them both (see Seamless Teamwork and SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration). Here's Michael's overview of ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
October 26, 2009
An information charter
Martin White has posted an information charter for organisations. To quote: The genesis of the Charter was a particularly challenging project to develop an information management strategy for a major pharmaceutical company, and then having to condense it into a single PowerPoint slide for an internal presentation. Driving home from ...
Categorised under: Information management, Intranets
Tags: Information management
October 26, 2009
An accountant’s advice in making the business case for enterprise 2.0
Bill Ives highlights a report on creating a business case for web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0. To quote: While measuring return on investment on many enterprise 2.0 initiatives can be difficult, it is also very useful for a variety of reasons. The business case should ensure that the success ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Metrics & ROI
Tags: business cases, Enterprise 2.0
October 26, 2009
Eyetracking: is it worth it?
Jim Ross has written an article looking at eyetracking. To quote: It is easy to get excited about eyetracking. Seeing where people look while using your Web site, Web application, or software product sounds like an opportunity to get amazing insights into their user experience. But eyetracking is expensive and ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: eye tracking
October 23, 2009
Sneak peak of this year’s Intranet Innovation Award winners
While the official announcement of this year's Intranet Innovation Awards is not far off, we can't resist giving bit of a sneak peak of what to expect. This year we have winners from the USA, UK, Denmark, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Some of the award-winning ideas will include: Way for ...
Categorised under: Intranets
October 20, 2009
How to understand your users with personas
Brad Colbow has posted a superb comic on personas. To quote: Personas are a powerful tool for helping you to better understand the needs of your users. In this comic, drawn exclusively for Think Vitamin, you’ll learn more about Personas and how they’ll revolutionize the way you design and build ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: personas
October 20, 2009
Intranet governance begets intranet success
Toby Ward has written about intranet governance, answering some common questions. To quote: As is the case with most websites or intranets it is simply impossible to achieve any long-lasting success without a clearly defined ownership and management structure. Intranet governance provides clarity and rules: namely the titles, roles and ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: governance, Intranets
October 19, 2009
Intranet strategy with collaboration products ensures fresh content
Jessica Scarpati writes about collaboration on the intranet, drawing on the opinions of a few in the industry. To quote: Building an intranet to house static content such as an employee directory and benefits forms can make a portal as dated as a corporate brochure. Making unified communications (UC) tools ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: Collaboration, communication, Intranets
October 19, 2009
Intuit brainstorm offers innovation management
Bill Ives shares a case study of the innovation management system at Intuit. To quote: Intuit Brainstorm was designed by employees operating as innovators, rather than as a tool for senior management to track the status of efforts. It was designed to meet the needs of these innovators. It enables ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: innovation, Intranets
October 16, 2009
More feedback on “What every intranet team should know”
In the last week I've had a few more reviews and comments come in on What every intranet team should know: Successful intranets don't happen by accident. James Robertson, Intranet Guru and founder of Step Two Designs has combined 10 years of experience into 110 pages covering topics every intranet ...
Categorised under: Book & product reviews
October 14, 2009
Intranet Innovation Awards events (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra)
With the release of this year's winners of the Intranet Innovation Awards imminent, we've organised a series of events throughout Australia to share the remarkable ideas and approaches that have been uncovered. Now in their third year, the Intranet Innovation Awards are global awards that discover and share vital intranet ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
October 14, 2009
Social intranets as the new talent management system
Sean R. Nicholson raises the idea of social intranets as the new talent management system. To quote: As Social Intranets are becoming more commonplace, however, a unique phenomena is occurring. Employees are sharing their previous experiences, subject knowledge, and expertise with fellow employees, management, and executives each day, providing a ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social tools
October 14, 2009
Five key topics to be discussed for a Enterprise 2.0 strategy
Enterprise2Open write about 5 key topics to be discussed for a Enterprise 2.0 strategy. To quote: As we are talking about a new way of operational structure within Enterprise 2.0 activities we also have to have a look at the organizational structure. While the traditional organizational structure is based on ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
October 13, 2009
7 principles for decentralized publishing
Jane McConnell has published 7 principles for decentralized publishing. To quote: Define the level according to the "natural business role". Publishing on the intranet must be part of normal business procedures. Whoever is responsible for the accuracy of a specific content should also be responsible for that content on the ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: authoring, Intranets, publishing
October 9, 2009
Intranet in the cloud
Toby Ward explores the possibility of hosting the intranet in the cloud. To quote: In short, hosting is provided as a service over the Internet. SaaS is simply hosted software that could include your website content management system, search engine, CRM (Salesforce.com), etc. The cloud is merely a metaphor based ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: cloud computing, Intranets, strategy
October 8, 2009
A method for quantifying user experience
Eric Reiss outlines a method for quantifying user experience. To quote: There are lots of complicated ways to work numbers, particularly when dealing with the subjective data that invariably lies at the heart of any discussion of user experience. But rather than putting together confusing formulae to present our research, ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: user experience
October 8, 2009
Barriers to intranet use from Forrester
Bill Ives reports on barriers to intranet use, as highlighted by Forrester. To quote: Forrester recently released a report on What’s Holding Back Your Intranet? They were nice to share a copy with me. They found that 93% of employee respondents said they use an intranet or company portal ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: Intranets
October 7, 2009
The third way for designing enterprise wiki information architectures
James Dellow discusses how to structure wikis, suggesting a balance between up-front and organic approaches. To quote: Last week I was talking to someone about enterprise wiki adoption. I ended up sketching a rough diagram like this so we could talk about the need to design (in an active, participatory ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Information architecture, Intranets
Tags: Information architecture, wikis
October 7, 2009
JSR cheat sheet for content technologists
Adriaan Bloem has posted a handy summary of JSR standards for content management. To quote: If you're following the content management space closely, but aren't a Java wizard, the JSR (Java Specification Request) numbers can become a bit of a puzzle. I've recently had several conversations that went something like this. ...
Categorised under: Content management
October 6, 2009
Back in Australia
It's nice to be back home, even if the weather is cold and wet, much like my last two weeks in Europe. The last two weeks have been frantically busy, but enjoyable nonetheless. I started with two days in Switzerland, including presenting to a local group of intranet managers from organisations ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
