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More on starting with the intranet homepage

Iain Barker's article this month on starting with the homepage has generated some excellent discussion and debate.

First there was Peter Van Dijck who suggested that starting with the homepage will send us straight to politico-hell. To quote:

I have a lot of respect for James, but that's the WORST advice ever. Starting with the homepage is a direct road to political hell in any company. I usually do my best to keep the homepage out of discussions until we've done other parts of the site. These days, I'm doing the same with the main nav - it all comes out of working on the rest of the site. James, this one's just wrong, I find it hard to imagine you won't go straight to politicohell (don't pass by START).

Then Jane McConnell joined in the debate, suggesting that the homepage can't be redesigned on its own. To quote:

As an external consultant, I might add that "starting with the homepage is the fast lane to losing your job!" because it's real dynamite in most organisations - you've got to know your way around before you'll know how to best deal with the homepage.

Thanks for the great debate! This is the sort of thing that keeps me interested and enthused. :-)

First off, let me say that I wouldn't disagree with any of the comments made by either Peter or Jane (they're both very experienced in this area). I will, however, expand on what we've written so far (in brief form):

• We aren't suggesting that a complete redesign isn't appropriate in many (most?) situations.
• Generally speaking, if you can gain the support (and resources!) for a complete redesign, then that's the best solution.
• When we wrote the article, it was drawn directly from a client situation where it wasn't possible to redesign the whole site (no CMS, no resources, little support).
• In this case, we highlighted that some short-term benefits could be gained by refining the design of the homepage, within the constraints of the overall (broken) IA.
• We also highlighted that the homepage itself can be a major problem, beyond the broader problems of the site, and that something can be done about it.
• I would also draw attention again to the list of purposes for a homepage, and encourage everyone to re-read those. Any design (or redesign) that emphasises just one element (such as news) over the others may be doing little to support the success of the intranet.

So in summary, to build some momentum, there may be value in incrementally improving the homepage, leading onto a broader redesign. There is certainly much that can be done to the improve the design of the homepage, recognising that it is as important to support good navigation as it is to provide a home for news...

Anyway, it's great to have this sort of debate amongst peers in the intranet space, so thanks to all that have commented so far.

Posted by jamesr on May 14, 2006 05:14 PM
Categories: Intranets