Search doesn’t work out of the box, and up to 80% of the default functionality must be stripped out for general search users.
Articles tagged: usability
MAY 2008
Intranet (re)design wrap-up
Over the years, we have published a vast amount of information on intranets. In this article, we attempt to wrap up all the activities that form part of an intranet design (or redesign) into one concise checklist.
CMb 2007-09
Start user research by talking with staff
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.
MAY 2007
11 usability principles for CMS products
If a CMS is not usable then it will not be successfully used by authors, and this can be assessed during product selection.
CMb 2006-21
Usability and IA are core skills for intranet teams
Usability and information architecture (IA) are core areas of expertise for intranet teams, and all organisations should take steps to build this expertise internally.
MAY 2006
Nine ways to fix intranet search
This article outlines nine steps that can be taken by all intranet teams to improve the effectiveness of search, covering both design and under-the-hood changes.
APRIL 2006
Accessibility tips for website construction
We all know accessibility is important, but precisely how does one make a website or intranet more accessible? Often what is needed is a pragmatic view, based on real experience, to reveal what is really important and what should be tackled first.
CMb 2005-13
More users = simpler CMS
When deploying a CMS across the whole organisation, the rule is: the more users, the simpler (and more usable) the system should be.
NOVEMBER 2004
What is usability?
This article provides an overview of what usability is (and what it is not), as well as giving ideas on how to include more usability activities in projects.
CMb 2004-18
Using a “strawman” for page layout design
Using a ’strawman’ design in the early stages of a project can help to overcome many of the difficulties in the design process.
CMb 2004-13
Improving your intranet, task by task
By improving the way the intranet supports key tasks, immediate business benefits can be delivered in a manageable and cost-effective manner.
CASE STUDY (JUNE 2004)
User-centred redesign of the FaCS intranet
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.
MARCH 2004
An introduction to personas and how to create them
Creating personas is an effective way to understand the needs of your users, priortise features and functionality, and direct the design of your intranet or website.
JANUARY 2004
Five ways to identify intranet usability issues
This article provides five techniques to identify likely usability problems in your intranet. Some techniques provide indications about where the main problems lie, others provide concrete evidence.
CMb 2003-21
The difference between usable and useful
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.
CMb 2003-11
The importance of CMS usability
The success of a CMS depends it being used, and whether authors create content. It these two challenges makes the usability of the CMS critically important.
MAY 2002
Using usability to direct KM systems
KM has much to learn from usability, which can provide many useful starting points for structuring and managing KM projects.
AUGUST 2001
Deploying an effective search engine
A case study describing how to deliver a successful searching solution. Provides guidelines on user interface design, indexing configuration, search engine weightings and more.