Step Two Designs

Engineers working in operational environments have specific needs and issues that can be met with an intranet.

While broadly like any other intranet project, SharePoint intranets bring unique opportunities and challenges.

Call centre staff have important information needs that greatly influence the quality of customer service provided.

A central team needs to ask many questions to understand business unit and team collaboration needs.

There are practical ways to understand the needs of staff who are located in remote or regional locations.

In this article we talk with user experience consultant Gerry Gaffney, about his experience in using a new technique called cultural probes.

This case study outlines the process undertaken by Canon Australia to evaluate and redesign their corporate intranet, including an overview of the innovative IA developed.

We all know we should involve users when redesigning a website, but where do you start? Talking with staff in your own organisation allows you to leverage their vast body of knowledge on your website audience.

Users are not all the same, and do not have the same needs. A key principle is therefore: you can’t usefully deliver information to users you haven’t personally met.

Determining what an intranet is actually for involves gaining an in-depth understanding of staff (and organisational) needs and issues.

This case study presents the findings from five intranet reviews across a range of organisations, each with very different results.

Paired interviews are a very effective technique for identifying differences in working practices or terminology.

A successful knowledge management strategy must identify the key needs and issues within the organisation, and provide a framework for addressing these.

FaCS applied user-centred techniques in the redevelopment of their large Government intranet, and it serves as a useful model for other organisations looking to tackle the same issues.

A redesigned site can be easy and quick to use, and perfectly structured, and still be useless. For a site to be useful, it must meet user needs, and there are a range of techniques for identifying these.

This briefing focuses on who to select for stakeholder interviews. It provides some general guidelines, and lists some areas of the organisation to involve.

Stakeholder interviews are a very effective way of gaining an understanding of an organisation, and can be considered a form of ‘knowledge mapping’.

Review of the Hunter Health intranet, which generated a wealth of strategic and tactical recommendations.

Read about the project to develop Frontline Help for the Newcastle Call Centre. This project deployed a full content management system, created a web-based delivery infrastructure, and captured large amounts of business information.