Articles by Month: June 2006

Information and records management policy development guidelines

Patrick Lambe and Marita Keenan have written an article that gives guidelines on developing an information and records management policy. To quote:

It's often difficult to approach KM in any large scale way in an organisation without bumping into the policy infrastructure. The organisation will need to make decisions and give clear guidance about how knowledge and information sharing is to be balanced with information security, for example. The requirements for a knowledge sharing system, including taxonomy and metadata requirements, will need to be balanced with the need to manage records according to legislative and regulatory requirements. Knowledge, information and records form a continuum that needs to be managed holistically, and an integrated policy framework helps to support this.

Posted by jamesr at 09:58 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Expertise location without technology

Shawn Callahan has written an entry on expertise location without technology. To quote:

Some of my favourite bloggers are talking about expertise location recently. Jack Vinson provides a good summary. Luis Suarez riffs off Dennis McDonald, who has a couple of posts on the topic (here and here). All these posts make good points about expertise location and each is written from the perspective that an organisation can enhance its expertise locating capabilities with the use of technology. I agree with their ideas but just for a moment I would like to explore an alternative perspective: what if we put effort in helping individuals find relevant expertise when they need it and without the use of technology? What would people need to learn? Imagine the increased effectiveness of an organisation if the individuals could do this well.

Posted by jamesr at 05:55 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Quantitative studies: how many users to test?

Jakob Nielsen has written an article on how many users to test during quantitative studies. To quote:

We can define usability in terms of quality metrics, such as learning time, efficiency of use, memorability, user errors, and subjective satisfaction. Sadly, few projects collect such metrics because doing so is expensive: it requires four times as many users as simple user testing.

Many users are required because of the substantial individual differences in user performance. When you measure people, you'll always get some who are really fast and some who are really slow. Given this, you need to average these measures across a fairly large number of observations to smooth over the variability.

Posted by jamesr at 05:26 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The return on investment (ROI) for personas

Usability News has posted an extract from The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind throughout Product Design on ROI for personas. To quote:

One of the most common questions we are asked about personas is if they actually work. And if they do, how can you tell if they were worth the effort? Answering these questions is difficult. What counts as proof of the method is different for different people, products, and companies. There is no single case study or research study that proves their effectiveness rigorously. However, as you have seen throughout this book, there are hundreds of little examples of their effectiveness and value scattered about the industry. This is why this section includes so many stories from the field describing success stories from persona practitioners.

Posted by jamesr at 11:59 AM | Permalink
Categories: Metrics & ROI, Usability & user-centered design

Discovering user goals / IR goal definitions

Joe Lamantia has written an article on how to discover user goals. To quote:

In an earlier post on creating Goal Based Information Retrieval Experiences, I offered a list of fundamental user goals that underlays needs and usage of four suggested information retrieval modes. In this post, I'll share the approach employed to discover the fundamental goals of the users in our environment, with the aim of offering it as one way of understanding goals relevant for other types of environments and user experience architectures.

Posted by jamesr at 10:57 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

How to avoid lame morale events

Scott Berkun has written an article on how to avoid lame morale events. To quote:

The basic rule, where managers get in trouble, is this: any event outside of work does not create morale - it only allows whatever morale exists to surface. Case in point: Take a miserable team out to an amazing meal, they return to misery. Take a happy team out to an horrible meal, they return to happiness. You can't fix a team, or raise morale, by morale events. Case in point #2: If you consistently gave people interesting projects, stayed out of their way and rewarded them for hard/smart work, you'll do more for morale than a $100k morale budget ever could.

Posted by jamesr at 01:25 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Portal kudos and shortcomings -- summer, 2006

Janus Boye has written an article that categorises portal solutions. To quote:

There are many ways to segment the portal software marketplace, and indeed, putting products in boxes is a popular exercise among analysts and vendors alike. But for buyers the most meaningful and valuable breakdown is how well the various offerings fit their specific requirements, irrespective of product labelling, vendor marketing, and analyst scoring.

Posted by jamesr at 11:33 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Using wikis on the intranet: The British Council case study

Maish Nichani has written a case study on the use of wikis on the intranet. To quote:

Wikis are increasingly being used on the intranet to help in collaboration around shared work. However, many case studies only briefly cover the actual work practices that successfully accommodate wikis; the focus is still on the overall reactions of the managers and staff on their use. In this article, I will describe how wikis are used in the Singapore branch of the British Council and highlight the characteristics of the work practices that accommodate them.

Posted by jamesr at 07:42 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Taxonomies vs tagging: high context, low context

Patrick Lambe has written an entry exploring taxonomies vs tagging, taking a different approach from other debates on this topic. To quote:

We have to keep reminding ourselves, in taxonomy work, (a) how idiosyncratic and innovative human beings are in the way we structure our worlds; and (b) the difference between "high context" organisation systems (where you have to be educated into the original context/principle of ordering in order to be able to navigate it) and "low context" organisation systems (where it's self-evident as soon as you get into it). I've taken this useful distinction from Edward T. Hall's 1977 book Beyond Culture.

(Update: sorry about the broken link earlier, it's fixed now.)

Posted by jamesr at 08:47 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Goal based information retrieval experiences

Joe Lamantia has written an interesting piece on goal based information retrieval experiences. To quote:

Though it's common practice, thinking of information retrieval exclusively as 'search' is an arbitrarily narrow way of framing an area of capability with strong impact on overall perceptions of user experience quality and effectiveness. In the long term, it limits opportunities to offer customers more effective solutions to broader and more fully understood needs that involve information retrieval, but are motivated by other goals. This narrow view is especially limiting for the user experience architect, as it implies an immediate focus on the search aspects of information environments.

Posted by jamesr at 07:57 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Great Ocean Road

Looking East from the Twelve Apostles
Originally uploaded by James Robertson.

I've just spent the weekend driving the Great Ocean Road (in Victoria, Australia), which is every bit as beautiful as expected. This is the view from the Twelve Apostles (but looking back the other way), taken just after dawn. It was cold, but worth the effort!

Click on the image to get through to my account on Flickr, and you can see the full set of images that I took. I've also posted sets from my recent trips to San Francisco, Vancouver and more.

Posted by jamesr at 02:13 PM
Categories:

Why KM is hard to do

Patrick Lambe has written an article exploring why KM is hard to do. To quote:

We recently did a small information management/knowledge management internal initiative at Straits Knowledge. The relative ease with which we did it, compared to the problems faced by several of our clients (much larger organisations) has got me pondering on the way that existing infrastructure impacts an organisation's current effectiveness, both positively and negatively. In this article I use the case study of our internal initiative to analyse the way that infrastructure in large organisations imposes friction on the rate of change, and propose some project management and change management strategies to deal with that. If you're the kind of person who prefers to cut to the chase, I'm using this blog post to summarise the takeaways for KM project planning that I ended up with.

Posted by jamesr at 11:11 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

The rolling content inventory

Lou Rosenfeld has written an entry discussing the concept of a rolling content inventory, instead of a once-off inventory. To quote:

When you've got hundreds or thousands of distributed subsites and other pockets of content, you simply won't not know what's out there. If you send a spider on a content reconnaissance mission, you'll still likely be overwhelmed by the volume of content that turns up. And even if you can send, as one past client put it, an "army of monkeys" to swarm over and survey your content, well, that's not good either. No measure of simians can deal with the jungle truth that your content is a moving target. Any snapshot you take of it will be instantly out of date. And in your efforts to grab a comprehensive view of your content environment, you will surely go insane.

Posted by jamesr at 10:53 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Customer anthropology: the art of observation

Dave Pollard has written an article on customer anthropology. To quote:

One of the fastest-growing disciplines in business goes by several names, but it's all about observing customers (and potential customers) at work as a means of discovering unmet needs that your organization can fill. You won't read much about it on the Web because it's still competitive-advantage stuff: What I know about the science of it I cannot disclose under a confidentiality agreement, and most of the companies doing it (Steelcase, Intel, Volkswagen, Microsoft -- that's Bill Gates in the pith helmet at right, from a recent Forbes Small Business magazine article on the subject) aren't talking about it much. Mostly it's called cultural or corporate anthropology or ethnology, but I prefer the term Customer Anthropology -- the study of your customers' people and behaviours in their 'natural habitat'.

Posted by jamesr at 02:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Eyetracking: worth the expense?

Jared Spool has written an article that questions the value of eyetracking. To quote:

Eyetracking is fun to watch and produces cool output. It can serve as a good demonstration that users approach designs differently than we imagine. But can we find a useful place in our research process that is worth all the hassle and expense? I’m still not convinced.

Posted by jamesr at 11:06 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Singapore hotel

I am currently staying in Singapore, having just finished speaking at a conference. Having been upgraded at check-in, I'm staying in a modern and beautifully appointed room. All very nice.

Of course, being modern and minimalist, you wouldn't want to spoil the sleek lines of the controls with anything like labels. This is what is at my bedside:

Let's get a closer look at that:

Hmm. From the bedside position I could infer that the various buttons most likely controlled the lights, and after some trial-and-error finally managed to get the results that I was looking for. (I guess I should count myself lucky the that the "all off" button was labelled, even if it was too tiny to read.)

All very amusing.

Posted by jamesr at 12:41 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Succeeding at IA in the enterprise

I've just had an article on succeeding at IA in the enterprise published on Boxes and Arrows. To quote:

Working within the enterprise, we are confronted with new challenges. There is a lack of clarity around needs and goals, organisational issues are paramount, and the real challenge is making things happen and getting users to adopt the new solutions.

This is the focus of what is often called "enterprise IA", the application of information architecture in complex business environments. To be successful in these situations, we need skills and strategies that focus much more on people than on information.

Posted by jamesr at 09:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Information management, Intranets

Open Publish 2006 line-up announced

Open Publish 2006 has evolved to become the leading conference for practitioners in the fields of content management and electronic publishing.

The program has just been announced, featuring keynotes speakers Mr Richard Jefferson (CEO/Founder of CAMBIA) and Brendan Quinn (BBC New Media), along with a strong line-up of other speakers from across Australia.

I'm co-chairing the conference, and this should prove to be the best year yet for a conference that has built up a very loyal following over many years. Register soon, as the early-bird rate closes on June 16.

Posted by jamesr at 11:05 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Welcome to Cairo Walker

I am very pleased to welcome Cairo Walker as the newest addition to our consulting team. Cairo comes from across the ditch, and has worked for some of the highest profile organisations in New Zealand, including Fonterra and Woolworths. She brings with her 15 years of experience across a wide range of disciplines and industry verticals with on-the-ground experience in the areas of online services, project and event management, business analysis, change management, strategic and operational planning, marketing and operations.

Cairo will further strengthen our experience in the fields of information management, intranets and organisational change. She is already busy on one of our most innovative projects, one that will hopefully lead to a very interesting case study.

Welcome Cairo!

Posted by jamesr at 05:38 PM | Permalink
Categories:

From producer logic to user logic

Jane McConnell has written an entry on moving from producer logic to user logic on an intranet. To quote:

Moving an intranet structure from a producer logic to a user logic is probably the hardest thing an intranet manager will ever have to do, especially in large, complex organisations.

Posted by jamesr at 07:47 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Intranet strategy in large, complex and/or global intranets

Jane McConnell is perhaps the most experienced expert in the world on the challenges confronting global intranets. She is currently running a survey which will be of great value to large organisations, details below:

A worldwide survey on Intranet Strategy in Large, Complex and/or Global Intranets is being conducted by Jane McConnell, NetStrategyJMC, with a network of contributing partners around the world (including Step Two Designs.)

The survey first profiles the organisations based on location of HQ, number of countries and languages, structure of intranets, and other factors of complexity.

It then asks approximately 40 questions covering

• Broad strategic issues: decision making, budgeting, measurement & evaluation, governance
• Specific strategic issues: language & translation policies, home page strategies, collaboration policies, management & resources, processes & applications.
• Experience-sharing: successful past initiatives, major planned future initiatives
• Opinions: views on future trends for intranets

Although there are a number of intranet surveys that have been done, to my knowledge this is the first time the "large/complex/global" organisations have been tackled as a group, on a worldwide scale.

The more participants that can be identified, especially in Asia, Latin America and Africa, the more global the study will be! If you are interested in participating, contact Jane via her blog.

Posted by jamesr at 08:44 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

If we can't even describe knowledge sharing, how can we support it?

Patrick Lambe has written an impassioned plea for a greater understanding of knowledge sharing. To quote:

A combination of two very different incidents reminded me this week of just how incompetent we still are in KM at capturing the complexity, richness and sophistication of human knowledge behaviours. In the first incident I was asked to do a blind review of an academic paper on knowledge sharing for a KM conference. In the second, knowledge sharing was very much a matter of life and death. Although they shared a common theme, they might as well have represented alien universes.

Posted by jamesr at 08:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Enterprise Content Management 2006

I've been running quite a few web content management workshops in South-East Asia over the last year, as well as presenting tutorials at a range of overseas workshops. These have focused on selecting a CMS, and they provide a uniquely practical methodology derived from working with organisations such as BHP Billiton, Department of Immigration, University of Melbourne and many more.

What I haven't been doing in general, however, is running these within Australia. So I will highlight the upcoming Enterprise Content Management 2006 conference, where I will be giving a half-day tutorial on selecting a CMS. This will be both useful and enjoyable, and will greatly help those organisations looking to obtain a new (or replacement) CMS.

Posted by jamesr at 02:11 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Project visions

Jared Spool has written who entries on the importance of having a clear vision for projects. The first introduces the idea of an experience vision, to quote:

In our current research on experience design techniques, we've seen the most successful organizations share something: a solid vision of where the experience of their design is going. I've defined a vision as a collective perception of the difference between what today's experience is and what tomorrow’s experience should be.

He then followed up quickly to highlight that this must be more than just a vision statement. To quote:

My first thought was, "This doesn't say anything!" How is this different from what any competitor would have? Is there a competitor who wouldn't want to "make it easy," would advocate not using "best practices," or consider promoting how their product prevents developers from working in "a highly productive manner?"

Posted by jamesr at 11:41 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

6 steps to effective discussion forums on your intranet

Chris McGrath has written a short article listing some tips to make discussion forums effective. To quote:

I used to work for a company that takes pride in encouraging open dialogue. They have an excellent intranet, and a few years ago they wanted to implement forums to promote productive conversation.

After 4 years and 3 major revisions to the forums, usage is sporadic at best. The technology works, the culture is right, and the company is big enough (over 500 employees). What's wrong? When you have a small base of users (say, under 10,000), everything has to be perfect to create effective discussion forums. Here are 6 guidelines...

Posted by jamesr at 10:29 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Create a strong intranet brand

The intranet needs to have a strong brand, a sense of identity that, at a basic level, distinguishes it from the public website and other information sources within the organisation. Beyond this, the intranet brand should be designed to build staff trust, and to convey a clear sense of what the intranet can offer and when it should be used.

This briefing explores the role of the intranet's brand identity, as well as outlining how to put it into practice.

Lack of identity

Too many intranets consist of nothing more than a collection of many different intranet sub-sites, published by individual business units. With each of these sub-sites having a very different look-and-feel, it is hard to tell where the intranet starts and ends.

This situation is very damaging for the intranet, as there is no clear sense of identity for the site as a whole. Staff often have difficulty distinguishing between the intranet, the public website, and other sites on the broader internet.

It is also very hard for staff to find information, and the general level of trust in the intranet is often low.

Purpose of the intranet brand

The brand identity for the intranet serves many purposes, including:

• distinguishing the intranet from other information sources
• communicating the purpose and use of the intranet
• defining the scope and boundaries of the site
• building trust in the intranet
• supporting communications regarding the intranet

[CM Briefing 2006-10, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 12:35 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Quantitatively test the effectiveness of your home page

Staff should be able to confidently, quickly and accurately step from the home page of the intranet towards the information they require. If staff can't achieve this without resorting to search, the home page needs to be redesigned.

As discussed in Full site redesign? Start by addressing the home page, many home pages fail because they are exclusively devoted to exposing new and useful content. Both of these have a place on a home page, but they should be kept in proportion with its role as a gateway to all site content.

This article explains a quick and effective technique for assessing whether your home page is an effective gateway to site content.

Define a set of information-seeking tasks

The first step is to define 10-15 common information-seeking tasks. Search engine logs and previous user research are both good resources for discovering what people look for on the site. Don't use site usage statistics as these will only show what the site effectively enables people to find, which will bias the test.

Examples of information-seeking tasks include:

• find the sick leave form
• find the annual report
• find the process for performance appraisals

Try to avoid tasks where there is already a direct content link on the home page. For example, if in the 'Useful links' area of the home page there is a link to 'sick leave form' do not include this as a task. This is an evaluation of the effectiveness of the home page as a gateway to the site content, not whether the participant notices a link.

[CM Briefing 2006-09 written by Iain Barker, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 12:24 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

When intranet discussion forums work

Intranet discussion forums are an often used mechanism within organisations. While they are implemented using a variety of tools and technologies, they all serve the same basic purpose of supporting communication and discussion. In practice, however, many discussion forums fail to prosper, with few (if any) posts being made to them. In other cases, discussion groups are hailed as great successes.

This article explores the differences between these experiences, and introduces two critical success factors for intranet discussion forums: a clear purpose, and a common community.

Many names, same goal

Intranet discussion forums may be called many things, including:

• bulletin boards
• discussion groups
• online forums
• collaboration areas

Regardless of what they are called, they are all designed to provide an area where staff can post questions or comments, or to hold discussions with other staff. The underlying purpose behind implementing these tools is often to increase the 'interactivity' of the intranet, and to support 'knowledge sharing' goals.

It is also worth noting that many of the same issues discussed in this article also apply to email lists, when used within organisations to facilitate discussion between staff.

Why do some online forums prosper, while others fail?

Mixed experiences

It is extremely interesting to talk to a group of intranet managers about their experiences with intranet discussion forums.

Half of the group will say:

These were a complete waste of time! Staff asked for them, so we implemented a number of bulletin boards, but no-one used them. We're definitely not doing that again!

The other half of the group will say:

These have been a huge success. There are many posts to the discussion groups every week, and they've taken away a lot of 'all staff' emails that were causing a lot of frustration.

In general, the success of online discussion forums has been very 'hit and miss'. Without a clear sense of when and why they work, some intranet teams have found them to be successful, while others deem them to be entirely useless. The obvious next step is therefore to compare exactly what each of these groups has done, to identify the underlying patterns.

[June KM Column, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 11:52 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles