Articles by Month: February 2007

Fitting the enterprise 2.0 square peg into the web 2.0 round hole

Joe McKendrick has written an article on the merging of enterprise and web 2.0. To quote:

Should Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 be blended into one single category? Since the parade of Web 2.0 technologies has come to the fore, they have been mainly a consumer or business-to-consumer play, and have only tantalized the enterprise side. Web 2.0 is seen as an untamed frontier, open to all, an innovation a minute. By the way, that's the complete opposite of the approaches of cautious, security-minded, five-year-budget-cycled enterprise IT managers.

Posted by jamesr at 10:20 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information management

First CMPros meeting for 2007 in Sydney

For those in Sydney with an interest in content management:

First Sydney meeting for 2007 — 'Choosing the right CMS'

Always a contentious, informative and popular topic. Our first Sydney meeting for 2007 will be a round-table discussion on 'choosing the right CMS', personal experience, selection criteria, business drivers and what's out there in the market place.

James Robertson, Co-Chair of CMPros Australia, MD of Step Two Designs and internationally respected commentator on all things CMS will moderate a general discussion on this topic. We look forward to your input and experiences in the dialogue, or if you prefer, just come along and listen.

All welcome, regardless of whether a member of CMPros or not.

Details are ...
Time | Thursday, 1 March | 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Venue | Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts – 280 Pitt Street (near Bathurst Street), Sydney

If you could take a moment to confirm your attendance, it will assist with seating arrangements, please confirm by email to david@komodocms.com

Posted by jamesr at 07:40 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Modelling the new enterprise

Jevon McDonald has written an article outlining a model for the "new enterprise". To quote:

How will the New Enterprise look? How about a real world example? Here is a normalized and downscaled (1/100, some roles weighted) view of how democratizing tools and platforms can remove friction from an organization and allow relationships to build on an ad hoc basis.

Posted by jamesr at 01:18 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management

Design consequences: A fun workshop technique for brainstorming & consensus building

Leisa Reichelt has posted an article on a groupwork technique called design consequences. To quote:

For my recent BarCamp session I shared a design technique that a colleague and I developed quite recently that we've found to be quite successful in both generating great design ideas and developing consensus about the design approach for projects within a multi-disciplinary team.

We call this technique Design Consequences, due to the similarity it has with the similarly named children's games. We tend to use it in the earlier stages of the design process, although it can be used for more detailed interface design problems.

I love these types of group activities, and we'll have to try it out at some point...

Posted by jamesr at 10:50 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

10 best practices for displaying tag clouds

Joe Lamantia has written an entry on displaying tag clouds. To quote:

This is a short list of best practices for rendering and displaying tag clouds that I originally circulated on the IXDG mailing list, and am now posting in response to several requests. These best practices are not in order of priority - they're simple enumerated.

Posted by jamesr at 09:13 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

We've moved!

As of this morning, we are in our brand new office: Level 2, 69 Regent St, Chippendale. We are now only about 5 doors up from the Mercure Hotel, and only 5 mins walk from Central Station.

This has been planned since late last year, and we've now got three times the space, as well as a full fitout suited to our specific needs. It's all very exciting, and it feels great to be in a space that we can truly make our own. It also allows us to grow the consulting team, something that is very much needed at present (since we've been flooded with work this year).

Some photos of the new office:

Looking down the office

Catherine in her new space

If you're in the area, drop by to say hi!

Posted by jamesr at 09:01 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Wikipatterns

There is a new site devoted to the adoption of wikis, called Wikipatterns. To quote:

Wikipatterns is not an instruction manual, it's a set of tools. It's examples of techniques that have helped people, and of situations that people have found themselves in that they wished they hadn't. We want to help to identify a nail, and know you might want to hit it with a hammer.

Even though this site is sponsored (and run) by one of the Wiki vendors, there's still lots of good stuff to browse through. It's good to see these kinds of discussions which pragmatically look at how to make it work (and when not to use wikis at all).

Posted by jamesr at 11:40 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Information management, Intranets

Assessing vendor demos

I'm doing a lot of work at the moment helping organisations select a content management system. One of the key aspects of this is making sure that our clients get to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of each product, and the vendor demos the major way of achieving this.

The first step is to prepare scenarios that outline a "day in the life" of the CMS, and to have these used as a "script" for the vendors. At the end of the session, we then use a very simple scoring scheme for each of the narrative requirements:

This post was sparked by Tony Byrne's recent writings on the topic. Like Tony, I'm a great believer in the "bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" principle. If the vendor can't show the feature today, then I'm not going to base a purchase on the promises for future versions. This is reflected in the scoring scheme...

Posted by jamesr at 11:30 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Vendor briefings, take two

Tony Byrne has posted a followup to his earlier entry on vendor briefings. To quote:

Sure, ideally you'll work in partnership with your vendors, but you should also set high expectations for delivery -- and candor. At the end of the day, it still falls to you to take responsibility for getting full value from your software investment.

Posted by jamesr at 10:53 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

The utility of tagging

Luke Wroblewski has shared a diagram on the utility of tagging that has been created by Tom Chi. To quote:

Master diagram-maker and designer, Tom Chi recently put together (and graciously allowed me to share) an insightful illustration that communicates how the utility of tags is bi-modally distributed across personal and public recovery. Personal utility is the value of a tagging system for individuals looking to recover their private documents or assets. Public utility is the value created by an aggregated set of tags from multiple individuals. In this case, members of the group are recovering public documents or assets using tags from the whole group.

Posted by jamesr at 08:38 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Usability testing is an excellent training tool

Jared Spool has written an article on usability testing as a training tool. To quote:

His initial solution was to hire a consultant to run some usability tests, gather the essential information, write a report, and present it back to the team. I had a different idea: I suggested we train the development team to do their own testing. In my 28 years of experience of doing this work, I've found there is no single experience more educational than conducting usability tests.

Posted by jamesr at 08:30 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The no-knead approach to information architecture (#2 of 5)

Lou Rosenfeld has written another article on his no-knead approach to IA. To quote:

Ban the word "redesign" from your meetings. Redesign is a really, really dirty word, and your design discussions -- and outcomes -- will be far more successful if you avoid it. Here's why.

Posted by jamesr at 02:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Focus questions for site visits

Jared Spool has written an article on focus questions for site visits. To quote:

When we coach clients to prepare for site visits, we suggest they put together a list of focus questions, the questions they’ll keep top-of-mind as they observe people’s context. In Putting Context into Context, I talk about how you can break down context into eight categories: Goals, Process, Inputs & Outputs, Experience, Constraints, Physical Environment, Tools, and Relationships.

Posted by jamesr at 02:01 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Intranet case study: Lowe & Partners

Toby Ward has published a case study on the Lowe & Partners intranet. To quote:

Lowe & Partners Worldwide is a global advertising agency that has over 80 agencies in 54 different countries. To address many issues involving a large, dispersed employee population -- and all of the naturally occurring cultural and communications barriers -- Lowe invested in a state of the art intranet portal, Lowe Go.

Posted by jamesr at 01:48 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Roadmap magic: protecting yourself from the analyst influence game

Tony Byrne has written an entry about how to see through CMS vendor hype. To quote:

I can say with certainty that the gap between how vendors and customers see the same product has never been wider. There are many reasons for this, but let me dwell for a moment on the role of vendor product and marketing managers.

Posted by jamesr at 01:40 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

New report: 6x2 methodology for intranets

I'm very pleased to announce the release of a brand-new Step Two Designs report, titled the 6x2 methodology for intranets. This represents our most recent and most powerful thinking on how to overcome common challenges that confront most intranet teams.

The 6x2 methodology provides a unique and innovative approach to growing corporate intranets. Recognising that the list of potential improvements always exceeds the resources of the intranet team, this methodology provides a practical way of choosing the activities that will have the greatest impact on the organisation, and on the team.

Intranets must succeed. The organisational need to improve business processes, share knowledge and support staff in their daily work is constantly growing. Most organisations have already realised that they cannot operate without an intranet (whatever it might be called).

Yet the real challenge is for intranet teams to gain the support and resources to meet these business needs and demands. The net result is that intranet teams often work hard from month to month, but may make little apparent progress on the longer-term objectives for the site.

The 6x2 methodology works within these constraints to provide a practical approach for intranet planning that simultaneously delivers additional intranet functionality while building support for the intranet team. (See the methodology at a glance.)

Read the full details on the 95-page report, and then purchase the report directly from our site.

PS. I'm running international workshops covering the 6x2 methodology in the US (at the IA Summit) and Denmark. See the international events page for details.

Posted by jamesr at 03:22 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Finding success stories

Shawn Callahan has written an article on finding success stories. To quote:

Have you ever been asked to find success stories and been unsure where to start? Done well success stories slide effortlessly from one teller to the next conveying company values, strategic directions and the good reasons why your company should invest in initiatives like communities of practice. Done badly the stories remain captive and moribund in content management jails.

Posted by jamesr at 06:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

What is the New Year without (intranet) resolutions?

Cathy McKnight has written an article on intranet resolutions. To quote:

Resolution #1 - Develop and execute a robust intranet taxonomy so the site's content will not be "invisible" to its users. By creating and maintaining a well thought out and executed plan for the content’s meta data, those visiting the site will have a positive experience because they will be able to find what they are looking for. Check out Don't forget the tax(onomy) for more detail on developing a killer taxonomy structure.

Posted by jamesr at 06:09 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Smart scoping for content management

Joe Lamantia has written a post on scoping CMS projects, providing an entirely new way of looking at the process. To quote:

Two misconceptions - and two common but unhealthy practices, discussed below - drive most content scope estimates. First: the scope of content is knowable in advance. Second, and more misleading, scope remains fixed once defined. Neither of these assumptions is valid: identifying the scope of content with accuracy is unlikely without a comprehensive audit, and content scope (initial, revised, actual) changes considerably over the course of the CM effort.

Posted by jamesr at 01:28 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Tear down these walls!?!?

Andrew McAfee has written a post on enterprise 2.0 adoption. To quote:

Howard's comment highlights an excellent question: what's the real problem if some E2.0 environments are mutually inaccessible walled gardens? If, for example, I'm a member of three distinct corporate wikis, each of which is accessible only to its members? If I work in sales, which has set up an internal 'blogosphere' open only to the sales staff, and also for the North American division, which has done the same thing? After all, as Howard points out, my RSS reader will let me know when anything of interest has changed in any of these environments, and my browser will let me skip among them with no effort at all. So how big a deal is it that these environments are walled gardens?

Posted by jamesr at 05:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management

Search doesn't compete with navigation

Within the industry, there is often perceived competition between search and navigation. Do we really need conventional site structures and navigation, or can we replace all that with powerful search?

It has also been argued that search will be the interface. While this statement can be hard to pin down, it talks about making search into the primary interface, via search-based dynamic navigation and the like.

The reality of course is that both search and navigation are needed. I would go one step further to say that you can't have effective search without a good underlying information architecture.

Let's make this really clear with a picture. Imagine our intranet homepage looked like Google:

This is great for experienced, frequent staff. Looking for a leave form? Type in "leave". Looking for the sales figures reporting application? Type in "sales figures reporting".

This is not so easy for new-starters at the organisation:

• What terms do I enter into the search engine?
• What's on the intranet?
• Are there other systems I should be looking on?
• How does the organisation work?
• What are the various functions and business units?
• What terminology is used within the organisation?

Fundamentally, search is great for known item searching, but hopeless at unknown item searching. If you don't know what you are looking for, you don't know what terms to type into search.

While this is a very contrived example, it demonstrates that information architecture and navigation play an integral role on an intranet:

• A good IA is required to deliver effective search results, for without any structure search becomes "garbage in, garbage out".
• Navigation helps people to search for information when they don't know the exact name or the terms to enter into the search engine.
• Navigation exposes what is actually on the intranet (and what isn't).

So the quick summary: you need both search and navigation. They both need to be effective. So let's bury the hatchet, and get on the with the job of making them work.

Posted by jamesr at 09:33 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, Search tools

Innovating intranets in Denmark

I've just arranged to run a one-day masterclass in Copenhagen, Denmark on Building innovative intranets (18 April 2007). This may well be the only full-day workshop I run in Europe this year, and it will cover the latest thinking on intranet evolution, intranet strategy, web 2.0 and collaboration.

Topics covered on the day:

• 6x2 methodology for intranets
• Defining intranet goals and "sales pitches"
• Identifying real staff and organisational needs
• Leading successful intranets
• Six phases of intranet evolution
• Web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0
• Where collaboration and personalisation fits in

These workshops have been run throughout the world, and have been very well received (read past comments). So read the full workshop details, and sign up before places run out!

Posted by jamesr at 03:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Expert usability review vs. usability testing

Lisa Halabi has written an article on expert reviews vs usability testing. To quote:

One question we're often asked is which method is best: usability testing or expert usability reviews? Well, if they were sports cars, expert usability reviews might be a Porsche (pretty decent car and better than no car at all), but usability testing would be in a different league, namely Formula 1.

Posted by jamesr at 12:42 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Intranet strategy workshop at the IA Summit

I'm going to be running a whole-day workshop on Intranets as a business tool at the upcoming IA Summit in Las Vegas. This workshop is primarily targeted at experienced intranet teams, but will also be relevant to new-starters.

Topics covered on the day:

• Evolution of intranets
• Practical 'needs analysis' techniques
• Creating an intranet 'sales pitch'
• 6x2 methodology for planning intranets
• Role of the intranet team
• Role of collaboration tools and portals

This is a day of unique models and methodologies, including a model on the evolution of intranets, a very new approach to intranet management, and an answer to the question: where does collaboration fit in?

I've been running these workshops throughout the globe, and they're always extremely worthwhile for all involved (including me).

PS. I'm also running a half-day workshop on Improving the Design of Search.

Posted by jamesr at 08:05 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Panorama across the desert (IV)

Panorama across the desert (IV)

On the last day of my San Diego trip I drove up to Joshua Tree National Park. While the cloudy weather didn't help the photos, the landscape was truly extraordinary. Like nothing I've seen before...

Posted by jamesr at 08:26 PM
Categories: Metrics & ROI

Why search sucks

At the recent FASTforward conference in San Diego I was interviewed by David Weinberger on why search sucks. It was a pretty amusing interview (but you can judge that for yourself). To quote:

James Robertson of Step Two Designs explains why “search sucks,” and how it can be kept simple and made more effective if the implementers do more work up front.

I was also asked to give a few words on how search has changed my life (or not, as the case turned out to be). If nothing else, my 90 seconds of contribution demonstrates how hard it is to be witty or interesting without preparation... :-)

Posted by jamesr at 07:38 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

Tending your CMS garden

Jim Howard has written an article on managing the CMS on an ongoing basis. To quote:

Non-technical contributors use a content management system to add and modify web content. However, an enterprise also needs to add to and modify the system itself to enable changes to the website that weren't anticipated when the CMS was launched. For example, modifying the homepage layout or adding a new type of landing page often requires adjustments to CMS templates. Adding or subtracting a workflow step can require a specialist to adjust configurations or possibly modify code.

Posted by jamesr at 04:29 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Search doesn't work out-of-the-box

Search is broken on many websites and intranets. Search results pages are confusing and cluttered, and users can't easily find what they are looking for. It is tempting to think that this is a technology problem. Certainly, if there is a very old or very limited search engine in place, this will need to be replaced with a modern solution.

The danger, however, is that it can be believed that simply purchasing and installing a new search engine will solve all these problems. The reality is that search doesn't work 'out-of-the-box', and that there is a small (but vital) piece of work needed to design and tune the search engine to make it effective.

This briefing outlines some of the activities needed to make search effective, highlighting key steps that can be completed within just a few days.

Not just a technology problem

Every site (website or intranet) is different, with a unique mix of documents, content and metadata. The nature of searches will also vary, depending on the tasks of site visitors. For this reason, the search engine must be configured to match the characteristics of the site that is being searched. Only when this is done can the search engine return meaningful results.

For this reason, there is no single 'best' way to configure search. Instead, there are key aspects to be tested and refined on a case-by-case basis.

[CM Briefing 2006-02, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 06:33 PM | Permalink
Categories: James' articles, Search tools

Automating three types of forms

When it comes to implementing online forms on an intranet, there is a ‘rule of thirds’ that can be used to guide overall strategy and implementation activities. This rule of thirds describes three different types of online forms, and the highlights the specific technology approaches that might be appropriate for each.

This information can then be used when selecting new IT solutions, including content management systems and portals.

Value of online forms

There are considerable benefits to be gained by replacing paper-based forms with true online forms on the intranet. More than just replacing paper with a PDF equivalent, these online forms provide efficiency benefits for both the end user and back-office areas.

For this reason, the implementation of online forms is often a key element of an overall intranet or portal strategy. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that not all the forms are the same. Some are very simple, while others have complex business, process or security issues surrounding them.

Despite this complexity, practical steps can be taken to implement online forms, and progress is greatest when it is recognised that there are several clear categories of forms.

[CM Briefing 2007-01, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 06:26 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Position descriptions for intranet managers

Organisations nowadays are complex, diverse and everchanging. Within this working environment intranet managers need to define their place in the organisation.

One way to help establish where the intranet manager fits in an organisation is a position description. Position descriptions describe the key or major duties and responsibilities of the position. The intranet manager may inherit a position description with the role or more often intranet managers need to create both the role and a position description.

Generally there is a great deal of relevant information on position descriptions available in resources such as books, websites or the human resources department. This article outlines some of the specifics that apply to an intranet manager.

Why have one? A position description has two audiences to fulfil, the intranet manager and the organisation. Each organisation needs to accurately describe duties and responsibilities to ensure they have the right person for the role, determine any training needs and pay the intranet manager fairly.

On the other hand the biggest benefit for the intranet manager is to put some boundaries around the scope of the activities they undertake on a day to day basis. A position description can be even more crucial for the intranet manager role, as:

• generally the position is not understood
• intranet teams are often moved between departments and need to "break in" new senior managers
• most intranet managers have a broad degree of responsibility, in many areas of the business and need to be recognised for this

[February KM Column written by Catherine Grenfell, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 06:15 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Council intranets a must for transformation

The Society of Information Technology Management has published a report titled Better connected intranets - emerging good practice in driving efficiency, which looks at the role of intranets in local councils. To quote:

Best practice advice on generating the high usage of local authority intranets that is critical to their role in supporting local government transformation and efficiency, are set out in a new report from Socitm Insight.

[Thanks to eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 01:40 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Bob Boiko in Australia: early bird rates close soon

Just a quick reminder that the early bird rates for the Bob Boiko tour of Australia in March close at the end of this week (only 4 days away!). The dates for the tour:

Melbourne (Crowne Plaza): 15-16 March 2007
Canberra (Hyatt Hotel): 20-21 March 2007
Sydney (Mercure Hotel): 22-23 March 2007

Full event details

Posted by jamesr at 07:27 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Melbourne intranet teams are you ready?

The first workshop for the Intranet Leadership Forum was held in Sydney this week. The discussions flowed extremely well, and many useful ideas were identified during the session on intranet authoring models. The walk-through of a recent intranet redesign was also compelling.

Catherine Grenfell, Manager of the Intranet Leadership Forum will now be visiting intranet teams in Melbourne on Monday 19th, Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st February. If you would like to met with Catherine to discuss your intranet, please contact her today on (02) 9319 7901 or catherine@steptwo.com.au.

Posted by jamesr at 12:07 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

San Diego shrouded in fog

San Diego shrouded in fog

I've arrived in San Diego, and was amazed at the sight when I looked out from my balcony late at night. The fog shrouding the city created a cityscape reminiscent of Blade Runner, truly extraordinary. (You'll want to view this panorama as large as you can.)

Posted by jamesr at 04:15 PM
Categories:

Ethnographic study of collaborative knowledge work

S. L. Kogan and M. J. Muller have written a journal article on an ethnographic study of collaborative knowledge work. To quote:

We present an ethnographic study in which we examine the ways collaborative knowledge work gets done in a process-oriented environment. The purpose of the study is to identify the kinds of support that knowledge workers could benefit from and to make recommendations for tools that might provide such support. The participants in this study, knowledge workers in various business domains, work in a collaborative environment; their skills are in their areas of expertise rather than computer science and programming. The data we collected are based on field interviews, on observation sessions, and on validation sessions using prototypes. We analyzed the field data using selected principles from grounded theory, and the results of each cycle were used to guide the research in subsequent cycles. In our findings we describe how knowledge workers develop their own strategies and techniques for getting their work done in complex, dynamic environments in which prescribed work processes serve only as reference models. By presenting instances of such environments from our study data, we illustrate how such individualized work processes are created and demonstrate the need for new supporting technologies and tools.

[Thanks to Martin White.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:08 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Beyond predictable workflows: enhancing productivity in artful business processes

C. Hill, R. Yates, C. Jones, and S. L. Kogan have written a journal article on managing 'artful' processes. To quote:

Aside from the issues of scale, lock-in, and dependency, certain types of work simply cannot be formalized well enough to safely entrust to an enterprise application. The goals and methods of some processes change too quickly over time; for example, the process of designing high-technology products. In some processes, it is primarily the content in each process instance -- rather than the process itself -- that determines the outcome; for example, a request for proposal (RFP) process. Most important, many highly specialized processes are developed or refined locally at the individual or small-team level such that the process cannot easily be separated from the specific people who perform it; for example, managing client relationships in professional services firms. While the framing process may be stable at an abstract level, the key details are not. They depend on the skills, experience, and judgment of the primary actors. We denote these kinds of processes artful in the sense that there is an art to their execution that would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to codify in an enterprise application.

[Thanks to Martin White.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:00 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Knowledge management

Personalisation survey closed

The survey on User-driven intranet and portal personalisation has just been closed. In total we had 438 responses, which is excellent! We'll need a bit of time to analyse all the data, so watch this space for the results...

Posted by jamesr at 12:12 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Book review: The User is Always Right

The User is Always Right:
A practical guide to creating and using personas for the web
Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar

This is a book drawn from the experience of having created many personas for a wide range of different organisations. More than that, the authors have clearly been creating great personas that have had real impact on the websites they support.

In a very practical way, the book works through all of the core aspects of personas. How they work, when to use them, the benefits of personas and what they look like in practice. This is all written in a friendly and informal style that makes the book an easy and enjoyable read.

For me, the greatest value was the unique approach to the fundamental methodologies behind creating personas. Too often, personas are simply the sum total of the opinions and assumptions of the design or web team. Tackling this head on, this book provides three different ways of creating personas:

• qualitative personas
• qualitative personas with quantitative validation
• quantitative personas

For the first time (as far as I'm aware), this brings together two very different approaches: qualitative research based on interviews and observation; and quantitative research based on surveys and usage data. The authors' overall methodology provides real answers on when to use field research, when to conduct surveys, and how to combine the two sets of results. The end product are personas that have much greater rigour and impact.

Best of all, there are extensive samples and examples throughout the book of real personas, actual user research data, and analysis spreadsheets. These give a very clear idea of how the recommended approaches work in practice.

In summary, this is a must-have book for web teams tackling the redesign of complex sites, or for user-centred designers seeking more rigorous methodologies when creating personas. I cannot recommend this book too highly.

Overall score: 10/10

Posted by jamesr at 10:59 AM | Permalink
Categories: Book & product reviews, Usability & user-centered design

Obstacles to achieving intranet potential?

Jane McConnell has written an entry on obstacles to achieving intranet potential. To quote:

amused myself by producing two different tag clouds from data from the NetStrategy/JMC Global Intranet Study question about "What obstacles prevent your intranet from reaching its potential?"

Posted by jamesr at 10:33 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Tagging play

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has published the results of recent research into the popularity of tagging. To quote:

A December 2006 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 28% of internet users -- and 7% on any typical day -- have tagged or categorized online content such as photos, news stories or blog posts.

These are people who responded "yes" to the following question: "Please tell me if you ever use the internet to categorize or tag online content like a photo, news story, or a blog post." The survey wording was designed to capture the growing use of tagging on sites such as http://del.icio.us/ (a site for sharing browser bookmarks), http://www.flickr.com/ (a photo sharing site), http://youtube.com/ (a video sharing site) and http://technorati.com/ (the blog search engine).

[Thanks to Jo Prince.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:03 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

CMS and change: between optimism and pessimism is realism

Emma Hamer has written the first part of an article on CMS and change. To quote:

Content Management systems have a similar potential to ERP software, and that is to revolutionize the way organizations do business. The impact of a CMS project reaches deep into the organization, and is a potent trigger for radical changes to the corporate culture. It's not just that workflow changes; it's that the people involved in the work must change. And yet, almost no-one is discussing the issues realistically.

Posted by jamesr at 09:05 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management