When creating or relaunching an intranet, the question of whether to give the site a name often comes up. This briefing explores when to name an intranet, and how best …

Out of the box, most search engines are poorly designed for the needs of general intranet searchers. Cluttered with complex features, these search tools can easily be overwhelming for staff …

Staff directories (internal phone directories) can be much more than just a way of looking up contact numbers. In any large or complex organisation, they can also provide a way …

This is part 3 in our series of posts that outlines how we work with clients. There are a very large number of content management systems (CMS) in the marketplace, …

Intranet teams need to use their time wisely. It is very easy to fall into the trap of dealing with urgent requests and problems, never actually making any progress. Effective intranet teams must plan up front how they will spend their time to deliver both short term and long term benefits to their organisations. The rule of thumb for intranet resources is: 30% effort for day-to-day maintenance 40% effort for projects and new initiatives 30% effort managing relationships with staff and stakeholders For a team of one this can mean devoting one day a week to managing relationships with staff

The design of public websites, particularly when they have a marketing or branding role, is vital. In these cases, a team of experienced graphic designers and front end developers work hard to create polished and beautiful designs. When it comes to intranets, however, is their 'look and feel' so important? Fundamentally, should intranets look sexy? Design of public sites We are all exposed to the wide range of designs for public sites, from the very ugly to the very beautiful. Major consumer brands have attractive and vibrant home pages, while even technology companies present polished designs. These sites reflect the

There is a lot of work involved in redeveloping and relaunching an intranet or website. The project management challenges start early, and it is easy to overlook the time (and effort) needed to migrate the content from the old to the new site. Yet, for its lack of visibility, content migration is often the single biggest activity in a web redevelopment. Certainly it is the least interesting, and unfortunately unavoidable. This article explores a number of options for the migrating content, and provides some practical suggestions that should help it to go smoothly. Redeveloping a site Two factors often drive

What is the intranet for? An easy question to ask, but surprisingly hard for many intranet teams to answer. To be successful, intranets must have a clear definition of their purpose and character. This underpins decisions about future directions, as well as current priorities and activities. Answering this question goes a long way to defining the intranet 'brand'. More than just colours and logos, the brand captures and communicates the nature of the intranet. This briefing will outline a simple technique to start the process of determining the intranet brand. Product Reaction Cards The user experience team at Microsoft have

There are often situations where there is a difference of opinion between the central intranet team, and the decentralised authors, owners or stakeholders. Depending on the team, there may be situations where they aren't confident of tackling the issues, or winning over the decentralised groups. To help build team confidence, and to win more of these arguments, there are three things all intranet teams should try to do: understand staff needs and issues put yourself in their shoes build the team's professional skills Each of these is explored in the sections below. Understand staff needs and issues Discussions relating to

Thanks to all those who provided feedback on the earlier mindmap that we posted. We’ve now incorporated a range of changes and improvements, and have released version 1.4. The fonts …