I've just spent a day with a well-known global company at their headquarters in Sweden (and no, it's not IKEA). They are in the early stages of a large intranet project, which has been thrown a curve-ball by a huge global reorganisation. My role in this one-off day of consulting ...
Articles tagged: Information architecture
Eight intranet design mistakes
Intranet projects are challenging at the best of times. Sites are large and content rich. Project teams are often thrown into the deep end, with many constraints and expectations. Intranet projects may confront challenges such as: unclear intranet ownership and governance tight timeframes limited (and often insufficient) budgets varied (and sometimes competing) stakeholder opinions large number ...
The three clicks myth
When designing intranets or websites, it is helpful to have some rules of thumb to follow when making decisions. Over time, many of these have become elevated into principles or rules, widely used throughout the industry. The best-known is the 'three clicks rule', which says that all content should be no ...
Sketchy wireframes
Aaron Travis writes about the benefits of making wireframes look rough. To quote: When it comes to user interface documentation, wireframes have long been the tool of choice. However, using traditional diagramming tools like Visio, OmniGraffle, and InDesign, most wireframes today look the same as their ancestors did from a ...
A day on intranet design with Victorian councils
Last Friday I spent the day in Melbourne, running an Intranet Design + Redesign workshop for local councils. The in-house workshop was organised by one council, and with other councils invited to join the session. We ended up with about 24 people in the room representing 15 different councils ...
Intranets must be task-centric
Gerry McGovern argues that intranets must be task-centric. To quote: Let's say you have an organization of 1,000 people, and 50 of them work in Human Resources (HR). An organization-centric intranet will work great for those 50 people, but it will not work very well for the 950 people who ...
How to create clear web navigation menus
Gerry McGovern has written about the value of clear navigation menus. To quote: Good web navigation is unsubtle. It is clear, precise, familiar, consistent, boring, unemotional. Good navigation is ugly and functional. You've just designed a new plane. It's sleek and ergonomic, fuel efficient yet roomy. You're now sitting with ...
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 ...
Ready for the world-premier in London of our “Intranet design + redesign” workshop
Phew! It's been a busy week, and I'm glad to finally be on a plane to Europe. One of the bigger projects was putting the finishing touches to our brand-new Intranet design + redesign workshop. I've been running intranet strategy workshops for years now. They've run in over a dozen countries ...
How to combine multiple research methods: practical triangulation
Patrick Kennedy has written an article on using triangulation in user research projects. To quote: This is where the concept of “triangulation” comes into its own. Also known as “mixed method” research, triangulation is the act of combining several research methods to study one thing. They overlap each other somewhat, ...
Intranets: defining IA and UX in the Enterprise-wide Information System (Part 1)
Patrick C. Walsh looks and information architecture, intranets and information management. To quote: In my view the EIS must consider all instances of information and knowledge transfer that take place within an organisation. This does not mean that it is possible to actually manage all transactions. For instance the tacit ...
Brand new workshop: intranet design + redesign (Sydney, 21 October 2009)
We've been working with intranet teams for years now, as well as writing articles and running workshops around the globe. Something that's been on our to-do list for ages now has been to create ...
Designing site structures for intranets and websites
Maish Nichani has written an extensive article on designing site structures for intranets and websites. To quote: A good site structure makes users happy. They can easily find, understand and use the information on your site. For the business, this makes all the difference. In this article I’ll go through ...
Principles for designing global-local intranets
A little while back I wrote a post about the global-local challenge for many intranets. To quote: In any large organisations, there will be many different business units, with different needs. Individual staff across the organisation will also need specific tools and information. The challenge is to meet global needs ...
User experience treasure map
Peter Morville has posted about a new User Experience Treasure Map, created in collaboration with Jeffery Callender. To quote: If you've made it this far, you deserve a reward. That's a lot of words about a lot of deliverables. And, that's the problem. It's hard to find the best trees ...
More on breadcrumbs as a design cop-out
Jared Spool continues to look at the problems with breadcrumbs as a navigation aid. To quote: Users don’t care about the hierarchy of the site. The thousands of users we’ve observed for the last 12+ years clearly tell us that users don’t care how the site is constructed. Users only ...
