What Will Intranets and Portals Look Like in 2010?

Every year needs its hype topic of choice. In the field of intranets and portals for 2007, the fashion has now been decided: It's the 3-D intranet—some version of Second Life (the virtual digital environment gaining popularity among large corporations) designed for employees. IBM is investing large sums of money looking into what a 3-D intranet might be like, and intranet managers and directors in large organizations are gaining interest in this new possibility.

Miller, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Why Research Intranets Fail  

Since the mid-1990s, the promise of intranets has beckoned. These systems can transcend geographical barriers, offer the information workers need, and churn out answers at any time of day. With them, workers can save valuable time and make better decisions. But less than a decade later, a usability study about research intranets has found that the promise remains largely unfulfilled. Why do intranets fail? How can more usable designs be created? In this article I review usability findings from my company’s recent report, based on the 2001 usability study for Special Libraries Association and conducted at Bechtel Corporation, ChevronTexaco Corporation, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, Gale Group, Gilead Sciences, Sun Microsystems, and Synopsys.

Head, Alison J. SCIP Online (2003). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Woes of the Intranet Writer

Some main points submitted by readers about writing for intranets, in quotation marks or paraphrased.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Writing

Ten Ways to Continuously Improve Your Intranet

The amount of work involved in designing a new intranet or redesigning an existing intranet is minor compared to the time needed to maintain an effective intranet over the longer term. In fact, it is common for the initial excitement of a new intranet to fade away as the reality of day-to-day maintenance and the challenges of improving the intranet become apparent.

Spencer, Donna. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Beware the Bleeding Edge and Feature Creep

You want to make sure that your systems have a certain amount of longevity — prolonging system lifecycle, avoiding the risk of obsolescence, and maximizing your return on investment — by making use of current technologies while not hastily chasing bleeding-edge promises of some sort of high-tech eden.

Chin, Paul. Intranet Journal (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Building Intranets that Matter

Despite best intentions, intranets often fail to deliver on the value they promise. Why? Companies take an 'if we build it they will come' approach. Too often, intended users don't come. And if people don't use the intranet, it will never deliver value.

Singh, Shiv. Digital Web Magazine (2003). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Card Sorting for Intranet Information Architecture

A relatively large navigation list (about 50 content areas) of ‘un-substructured’ finance related material. The intranet in question uses single menu pages for each of 8 main information groups and the above list was part of the wider finance information group. Some work had already be done on other subsections (i.e purchasing). But the rest of the content, which included policies, procedures and other reference material, was all in the same sub-section. The list was structured by alphabetical order only.

Besseling, Nick. Contextia (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Card Sorting

Conducting Intranet Needs Analysis

The fundamental question to ask for all intranets is: what is the intranet actually for? While this is an easy question to ask, answering it meaningfully involves gaining an in-depth understanding of staff and organisational needs.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Create a Strong Intranet Brand

The intranet needs to have a strong brand, a sense of identity that, at a basic level, distinguishes it from the public website and other information sources within the organisation. Beyond this, the intranet brand should be designed to build staff trust, and to convey a clear sense of what the intranet can offer and when it should be used. This briefing explores the role of the intranet's brand identity, as well as outlining how to put it into practice.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Marketing

Creating an Upwards Spiral for Your Intranet

Many intranets are trapped in a 'downwards spiral': process and resources issues lead to poor-quality content, which reduces trust, which leads to more problems, and so on. This briefing explores the nature of the problem, and outlines some approaches to reshaping the intranet into something that grows and prospers.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Debunking Five Common Intranet Myths

Over the years I've received many e-mails from readers with some pretty wild, and even dangerous, misconceptions about intranet development and management. In this article I'll take a look at five of these common intranet myths.

Chin, Paul. Intranet Journal (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Five Intranet Reviews, Five Different Results

This case study presents the findings from five different intranet reviews, with the aim of exposing some of the issues being confronted across different organisations. These reviews also show that even within seemingly-similar organisations, the intranet issues can be quite different. This highlights that there is no 'one size fits all' intranet solution, and emphasises the value of conducting meaningful 'needs analysis' activities, such as those outlined in this article.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Case Studies

Five Key Intranet Policies

Most intranets have some form of policies and procedures, typically focusing on authoring guidelines and standards. The question is: are these the right policies to have? In many cases, intranet teams have established policies that they find difficult to enforce, while missing the opportunity to develop policies that will be much more beneficial for both the intranet team and the site itself. This briefing takes a different look at the role of intranet policies, and outlines five policies that all intranet teams should develop.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Policies and Procedures

From Producer Logic to User Logic: The Greatest Challenge You May Have

Moving an intranet structure from a producer logic to a user logic is probably the hardest thing an intranet manager will ever have to do, especially in large, complex organisations.

NetStrategy-JMC (2007). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>User Centered Design

Full Site Redesign? Start by Addressing the Home Page

When an intranet isn’t working effectively, many organisations attempt to tackle the problem with a full-scale redesign of the site or the implementation of a content management system. But these major projects can create as many issues as they resolve.

Barker, Iain. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Redesign>Intranets

How to Scope an Intranet Release

When developing intranet releases, intranet teams often find themselves very constrained by both time and resources. The challenge then becomes delivering sufficient content and capabilities to meet business and user expectations, within the project constraints. This briefing introduces a simple approach to scoping a release that takes all of these factors into account.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Project Management

Human-Centered Intranet Design

The role of the developer is to ensure that their systems don't put undue stress on users simply for the sake of technology. Developing for technology alone helps no one. It may showcase the advances in the industry and impress those in-the-know; but after the oohing and aahing stop, it does little to ease the disconnect between the user and the tool.

Chin, Paul. Intranet Journal (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>User Centered Design

Improving your Intranet, Task by Task

When faced with an out-dated and ineffective intranet, a common response is to launch a redesign project. This can involve spending the next three to six months researching staff needs, creating a new information architecture, and authoring new content. If redesign efforts are based on a solid analysis of business and user needs, this can be an effective way to improve an intranet. However, it takes considerable time and resources, and does not result in a measurable payoff for several months. For some organisations, a full redesign is therefore out of the question. One method that is certain to provide immediate business benefit is to improve the way the intranet supports key tasks. In fact, by selecting only one task at a time, improvements can be made in a manageable and cost-effective manner.

Calabria, Tina. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Intranet Authoring: a Hobby?

Much is expected of intranet authors, and they are vital to delivering an intranet that is useful (and used). Yet, in many cases, intranet authoring is treated as a hobby within organisations. This briefing looks at the role of intranet authors, and challenges organisations to either take intranet authoring seriously, or to let go of unrealistic expectations regarding content quality and timeliness.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Intranet Change: Evolution or Big Bang?

When planning improvements to an intranet, two main approaches can be taken: the ‘big bang’ and evolutionary approaches. The big bang approach involves making a single, site-wide change to the design and structure of the intranet as the old site is replaced by a new one. In contrast, the ‘evolutionary’ approach makes gradual changes over time, evolving the capabilities and design of the current intranet. This article discusses the differences between the big bang and evolutionary approaches to intranet development. Guidelines are provided on when to use each approach, along with a range of practical tips and suggestions.

Goldstein, Sarah. Step Two (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Intranet Communications: Improving HR Service and Communications

Effective communications requires two-way, synchronous communications – not just messages pushed on a one-way street from the top floor executive offices. Successful intranets have a well-defined plan that accounts for employee needs and preferences and engages the target audience.

Ward, Toby. Intranet Blog (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Workplace

Intranet Communication vs. Traditional Communication

A way to measure return on investment (ROI) for your intranet is to answer two basic questions. How does the intranet increase the level and quality of communication? How does it replace traditional forms of communication? To develop such an ROI model, you need to be clear on the current level and type of communication within your organization.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2002). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Assessment

Intranet Managers Must Be Managers

While intranets often have someone appointed as the intranet ‘manager’, do they spend their time actually managing the site, or publishing pages? Observing many organisations and intranets, one of the critical success factors is to have an intranet manager who is free to focus solely on the management of the site. The intranet manager should not be writing HTML or publishing pages.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Management>Intranets>Web Design

Intranet Portals and Scent are Made for Each Other

How does the intranet designer ensure that employees can productively find the important content and functions, with minimum frustration, with a network growing that quickly? Many designers are turning to Portals -- a set of pages that act as a launch point for every dive into the intranet's ocean of content. We've found that some designers confused portals with a site's home page, but they actually function differently. Home pages guide users to content within a specific site, but because the intranet is actually a collection of sites, (such as human resources, sales, or individual project information,) they each have their own home pages.

Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Intranet Portals: The Corporate Information Infrastructure

Over the last half year, it has become popular for large and medium sized companies to build portals to their intranets which have been spinning out of control for years. Still, many companies don't even have a single default starting page for all of their employees: some leave browsers set to boot with the browser vendor's page (an utter waste of bandwidth and time) and others have a smattering of department pages but no company-wide internal home page.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1999). Articles>Web Design>Intranets