For many intranet teams, funding and resourcing is incredibly tight. The intranet is often a poor cousin to an organisation's public website, and its worth to the organisation is rarely demonstrated well. Intranet teams also rarely have direct lines of communication to senior management who, as infrequent users of the ...
Monthly Archives: May 2010
May 28, 2010
Finding compelling examples to build the intranet business case
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: business cases, examples, Intranets, storytelling
May 28, 2010
Identifying staff tasks
Intranets are most useful when they help staff do their jobs. This includes finding a key piece of information (‘what is the address for our interstate office?’) or completing a process online (‘I need to apply for some leave over Christmas’). The best approach for helping staff is to focus on ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles, Usability & user-centered design
Tags: Information architecture, Intranets, tasks, usability
May 28, 2010
How long should the intranet homepage be?
Intranet homepages are always contentious. In most organisations, every stakeholder would like a piece of this valuable real estate, and debates rage around the overall purpose and design. Within the intranet industry, the homepage also inflames passionate debate. This is particularly true on the question of how long the intranet homepage ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles
Tags: homepages, Information architecture, Intranets, usability
May 26, 2010
The end of the financial year approaches
Yes, it's that time of the year again in Australia, and the end of the financial year is approaching rapidly. If you have any left-over budget to spend, this is a great time to get prepared for the coming year's intranet projects. This includes joining the Intranet Leadership Forum, and obtaining ...
Categorised under: Intranet Leadership Forum
May 18, 2010
Not to prime, is a crime!
Jodie Moule gives examples of how to prime users before workshops, using a range of rich techniques. To quote: We first trialled this method in May 2007 for the redesign of an online education and training website. We decided to run design workshops as one of the initial stages ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: user research, user-centred design
May 17, 2010
Scoring spreadsheets, the bane of my life
Theresa Regli has written about the problems with scoring spreadsheets when conducting product evaluations. To quote: I am more cynical about quantitative methods of evaluating vendors. It makes me think of people who buy wine simply based on what The Wine Spectator rating is (without considering the food they might ...
Categorised under: Content management
Tags: content management systems, evaluation, scoring spreadsheets, selection
May 17, 2010
6 ways to measure effectiveness of news on your intranet
Nancy Goebel has written a great post on measuring the effectiveness of intranet news. To quote: Below is a short list of the KPIs that I put together for them on the basis that their home page functions very much as a digital newspaper. These KPIs are intended to provide ...
Categorised under: Intranets, Metrics & ROI
Tags: communications, Intranets, measures, metrics, news
May 14, 2010
Seeking a better design for intranet news
The design of intranets has been in the forefront of my thinking recently. I've been writing hard on our next book, which is specifically on intranet design (180 pages done, just three chapters to go!). This week's Intranet Leadership Forum workshop in Melbourne also had a session on the ...
Categorised under: Intranets, Usability & user-centered design
Tags: communications, design, homepages, Intranets, news
May 13, 2010
Social intranet vs intranet 2.0
Toby Ward outlines his take on social intranets vs intranet 2.0. To quote: An intranet that features multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. A social intranet may feature blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networking, or a ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: intranet 2.0, Intranets, social intranet, social software
May 13, 2010
How Bundaberg Regional Council uses its wiki
Bundaberg City Council has kindly shared some details on how they using their wiki as an intranet. To quote: Bundaberg City Council (BuCC) started using a Wiki to help manage its assets in mid 2006. When BuCC was amalgamated with three other municipalities in March 2008 (Burnett Shire, Isis Shire & ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: councils, Intranets, local government, wikis
May 12, 2010
Web Site Migration Handbook
David Hobbs has just released a wonderful new resource, the Web Site Migration Handbook. To quote: Consider the many factors of a successful CMS migration, including: Migration Steps: Vision, Plan, Pilot, Implement, and Maintain Implementation Plan: Staffing, Detailed Content Migration Plan, Tracking Metrics, and Project Schedule
Categorised under: Content management, Intranets
Tags: Content management, migration, websites
May 12, 2010
Social networking for intranet managers
Toby Ward has launched a new social networking site for intranet managers. To quote: A new social networking community for intranet managers uses predictive modeling to help people connect and share information. www.Communexions.com uses the highly successful and award-winning social software cubeless™ from Sabre is ideal for best practice sharing, ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: Intranets
May 11, 2010
Planting governance seeds
Jane McConnell has written about planting intranet governance seeds. To quote: My underlying key message is this: Intranets evolve. They are a process, not a project. Therefore you need to plant "governance seeds" throughout the organization. They will grow and develop as the organization evolves. They will help build a ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: governance, Intranets
May 11, 2010
CMIS – an important standard for buyers of ECM
Alan Pelz-Sharpe writes about CMIS. To quote: CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Specification) has been ratified as a standard by OASIS. What is it and what does it mean to buyers and users of ECM and Document Management technology? Well put simply, CMIS is the most important new standard in ...
Categorised under: Content management, Document & records management
Tags: cmis, content management systems, document management systems, interoperability
May 10, 2010
When was the last time your intranet empowered anyone?
Steve Radick asks the question: when was the last time your intranet empowered anyone? To quote: If you stopped using the terms "social media," and "Enterprise 2.0" and just started telling people that you "have some ideas for improving our Intranet that will make our employees want to log on ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
May 10, 2010
Senior executives need to get social on the intranet to do their job
Allen Butcher argues that senior executives need to start using social media, to support intranet strategy. To quote: At each one, collaboration and social media was very much at the forefront – and the importance of securing a place at the top table for change to be approved. And ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: Intranets, social media
May 4, 2010
Planning your UX strategy
Renato Feijó has written an overall approach to UX strategy. To quote: A strategy is a set of coordinated, orchestrated, planned actions, or tactics, which will take you along a journey to reach a desired future state, over an established period of time. Design objectives are conditions or outcomes that ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: user experience
May 3, 2010
Debunking the myths of online usability testing
Bill Albert explores the practicalities of online usability testing. To quote: The motivation for this article is to help UX researchers keep an open mind about online usability testing. There are some researchers who have been using this approach for years and find it useful (in certain situations). Others are ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: usability testing
May 3, 2010
Intranet phrases you should know
Nina Platt provides a list of intranet phrases you should know. To quote: Even if you’re a seasoned intranet professional, there’s always something you haven’t heard before. Sometimes, the very nature of the intranet (being internally focused and heavily customized to your corporate culture) lends itself to being cut off ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: Intranets
