Pat’s Point of View

In what is probably my last article for Step Two, entitled Intranet (re)design wrap-up, I summarise the vast amount of information on intranets that has been published by Step Two Designs over the years. The point is to aid intranet managers, or anyone involved in a redesign, in leveraging the useful nuggets contained throughout the many articles and get started in the right direction.

So you’re sitting at your desk and you have to redesign your intranet (or design one from scratch). Where on earth do you start? By any measure, this is no easy task. The multitude of factors that need to be taken into account can be overwhelming.

Over the years, we have published a vast amount of information on intranets, offering the benefits of our experience and giving practical advice on intranet management, information architecture and content management.

In this article, we attempt to wrap up all the activities that form part of an intranet (re)design into one concise checklist.

Along the way, references will be given to our most popular articles, giving you more detail on particular topics. The goal is to give you an excellent starting point for undertaking an intranet (re)design and also to provide support throughout the process.

Read the full intranet (re)design wrap-up article.

This article focuses on the big picture and a user-centred design methodology. I firmly believe that despite these projects becoming huge beasts, they can be successfully tackled by taking the right approach and applying simple techniques. For example, some of the more common information architecture techniques in use today are card sorting and wireframes. These are in themselves simple to master, but can prove very effective if used in the right way on a big project that has been broken down into sensible pieces. (On this note, I hope to release an article dedicated to wireframes very soon).

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My latest article has just been released, in which I interview Gerry Gaffney on the use of cultural probes in the context of intranet development. This was actually to return the favour extended by Gerry to interview me for his UX podcast. Here’s a taste:

Often it’s difficult to tell exactly who is using an intranet, and how they are using it. Obviously, some research is required to help answer these questions, but what technique can capture the tacit knowledge without shadowing users in an uncomfortable and expensive way?

A relatively recent research technique that can be very useful in this situation is known as a ‘cultural probe’. In essence, the technique involves getting users to give you information without you actually being there. Often this means giving them a diary to write things down in, but the technique can make use of all manner of objects.

I think there are many benefits to this technique for those designing, or redesigning, an intranet. Firstly, it’s often the case that intranet teams are working with very little budget, and thus including all user groups—say interstate or overseas—in research activities can be next to impossible. Sending out a probe which can collect data for you at low cost is a good solution.

It’s also a great way to reduce the ‘Hawthorne effect’, that is the effect you will have on those you are researching simply by being there. This effect is especially difficult for intranet teams to avoid, since they are often researching their own colleagues. It’s hard to blend into the background when you know everyone in the room! External consultants have it easy when it comes to quietly observing or doing contextual inquiries.

I really like the cultural probe technique, especially the sorts of whacky and creative things done by design researchers such as Bill Gaver. These might be a bit ‘out there’ for the corporate environment, but certainly get your attention.

(I’m interested in case studies that describe the use of probes, particularly ‘inside the firewall’. Have you probed your enterprise? What did you find?)

See what people are blogging about: cultural probes, user research, intranet, design research

Popularity: 17% [?]

As a member of the judging panel, I’m pleased to announce that the winners of the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards were announced on Friday.

The team at Step Two have worked hard to make this happen, so it’s great to finally announce the winners. I can take only a small part of the credit, but it was good to be involved.

As was the aim of the awards, each category was won by a specific piece of an intranet, not the whole intranet. This has highlighted some really good ideas that are being implemented to meet specific business needs. I’m quite looking forward to next year!

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After an embarrassingly long time, I have finally finished a case study of an intranet redesign project I did for Canon more than a year ago.

This project highlighted that intranets do not need to be structured in the ‘traditional’ way (ie like public websites).

Instead of a single home page and a rigid view of the site, a fresh approach was taken, and the information architecture for [this intranet] makes use of personalisation to efficiently meet the needs of Canon staff.

Lastly, it is worth noting that the information architecture techniques devised for websites apply equally to intranets, sometimes more so. This is a key lesson for experienced information architecture practitioners.

Continuing my ‘exclusive tips’ for those who read my blog, what you won’t read much about in the article is the intranet alignment workshop we ran.

In any organisation, there are many stakeholders who are involved in the design or management of the intranet. The first challenge confronting many intranet projects therefore becomes to create a common vision for the intranet, to align the many stakeholders, and to define the role that each stakeholder will play.

Ask anyone who has worked in a large organisation on a website or intranet project, and they will tell you that getting management buy-in can be very difficult. Political battles over ownership of the site, and thus over its redesign, are commonplace. And without some early alignment and consensus, trying to get approval for design ideas later on can be heartbreaking.

Just a half-day workshop, held after some initial needs analysis has been performed, can work wonders. Key stakeholders get their chance to give their input, they can see progress is being made, and as a group can discuss those things that are often assumed (like what is the intranet for?).

See what people are blogging about: intranet, intranet redesign, information architecture

Popularity: 11% [?]

Last night I presented my talk on intranets at the Sydney Web Standards Group meeting. I spoke about the topic of two of my recent posts, namely web developers have the power and intranets: the beast we love to hate. In a nutshell, I covered these points:

1. So what is an intranet anyway? Not an internal website, but rather a core business tool. A place to get things done.
2. Why do we love to hate intranets? There are downsides to intranets, but the reasons I hear from designers and developers tend to be more like they’re boring, they’re not sexy, they’re low profile.
3. What can we do about this? Two things; sharing skills between intranet people and web people, and selling the benefits of working on intranets.
4. Cross-pollination of skills: educating the web community about what a good intranet is and how to create them; learning from the intranet managers and CKOs of the world.
5. Selling the benefits of intranets: there are many upsides to intranets including the freedom to experiment, a ‘captive audience’, more functionality and most of all the greater satisfaction of empowering users in a way which effects their working day in a tangible way.
6. Showing off some of the small innovations being made in good intranets, including web 2.0 features, tailored business ‘apps’, and collaboration tools such as integrated staff directories.
7. So what does this have to do with web standards? The obvious connection is that with the increase in interactive functionality, those who are conscious of standards based web developers have a role to play to keep it all in check, but the not so obvious connection is the role developers can have in driving intranet innovation. As with web standards, accessibility and usability, building good intranets could become an enthusiast [let's be honest the word should really be 'zealot' :)] topic; pushed into focus by the sheer force of will of designers and developers who simply choose to care.

I’ve also posted the slides [PDF 2.4MB] if you’re interested.My slides are now on SlideShare.

I think it all went well and I got some really positive feedback. I was expecting a fairly underwhelmed, if not outright hostile, reception to the topic, so it was great to see that by and large the audience was interested.

Some of the discussions afterwards were also really interesting. For example:

• The challenge of exposing the good work we might do on intranets, and to a lesser extent sharing ideas. I didn’t want to turn the night into a big ad for Step Two, but the ILF, intranet peers and Intranet Innovation Awards are all ways of increasing exposure in this regard.
• How developers can achieve a lot through tinkering and getting stuck into tasks such as improving the code behind an intranet. Without the know-how which web developers bring to the party, inadequacies in the performance/appearance/functionality of the intranet are too often tackled by the ‘5 year IT plan’ mentality which usually involves implementing a very expensive CMS to solve the problem (both ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ and ‘cracking a peanut with a sledgehammer’). Someone who knows how to write good mark-up can improve the templates in a fraction of the time it takes for a corporate platform decision to be made.
• Another selling point for web developers regarding intranets is the transferability of their skills. Opening their eyes to the possibilities of good intranets also opens their opportunities in terms of areas they can move into, and indeed take change of. As we become more complacent about ‘just another website’ then perhaps this will be a big factor. In a market that is becoming increasingly more competitive (even commoditised) web developers and designers and devigners might look to intranets as their next horizon, especially considering much of the skills required are in common (it’s just the paradigm shift they need to worry about).

It would be wrong of me to discuss the evening without mentioning Shane’s talk on developers and designers getting along. He posed many interesting questions which have been floating around for a while but we still don’t have answers for. What exactly does it mean to be a designer and where (if at all) does the line exist between development and design? Do you need to know how the thing will be implemented (or at least an idea of what’s possible) in order to design? Would be a good topic for a panel session.

See what people are blogging about: intranet, web standards, Enterprise 2.0, devigners

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I’ll be giving a talk at the next Web Standards Group meeting in Sydney, on the 31st of May, entitled “Intranets, why you should care”. This will focus on some of the things I have blogged about recently.

Whilst there will be an obvious skew toward web developers and techies, hopefully the topic will be interesting for other people to. This event may prove to be a practise run for several talks later in the year, including OZCHI, OZ-IA and Open Publish.

Also presenting on the night will be Shane Morris from Microsoft Australia. In such company I only hope I don’t embarrass myself :)

Refer to the WSG website for more details on the evening.

It’s worth noting that the date has been moved from the 24th to the 31st due to some hassles with the venue.

See what people are blogging about: web standards group, intranets

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It’s quite apparent that the lowly intranet is a surprisingly unpopular thing among web designers and developers. Why is this? I’ve done some thinking, in an attempt to get under the skin of the issue.

Continue reading ‘Intranets: the beast we love to hate’

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Step Two have just launched the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards:

The Intranet Innovation Awards are global awards that celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to the design and delivery of intranets. The goal is to find these ideas (whether large or small), and to share them with the wider community.

Uniquely, these awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole.

Do you fancy your intranet? No? Don’t worry, most people don’t. But now you have something to aim for next year :)

See what people are blogging about: intranet, intranet innovation awards

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Today I presented a session on Needs based IA at the first Sydney workshop of the Intranet Leadership Forum. I got to talk about my two favourite subjects of the moment, ethnography and user-centered design!

I went through some basics of performing needs analysis to build a rich understanding of an organisation’s culture, work practices, work environment and staff’s information needs. I then broke down an intranet redesign project I performed last year, showing how the detailed research I did on the company and it’s staff made it possible to deliver a much more valuable information architecture (something more than a site map).

It was fairly successful but next time I do this I want to cut down the scope and focus the session more–the subject really was too broad for the time allowed. I’ll also make it more interactive, perhaps with workshop activities designed to get the group involved in using ethnographic techniques. And I’ll definitely devote more time to sharing some of the stories that I’ve come across during past projects. These are the juicy bits that get people excited about doing the work!

Wow, I’m definitely in presenter mode now, I’m even thinking of more topics (like Intranets for Advertising and New Media, that could be a good one).

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I have had the most unfortunate luck of having to work with Confluence over the last few weeks. More specifically, I have to customise the interface for a client (to make it somewhat usable since it’s not very good in standard guise).

Besides being a complex beast of a wiki come intranet, the theme/templating mechanisms are overly complex and incredibly cumbersome. I have obviously not been close to the whole web templating scene, since this whole universe of Velocity, SiteMesh and what-not has popped up and I hadn’t heard anything about it until now. Well I was quite happy in my ignorance, because this method of customising the UI is typical of what a programmer or sysadmin would come up with (let’s just say their idea of web design is rubbish!). It’s just way too complex and avoids the point of what someone would want to do with it, that is, modify the user interface.

The approach is not new, other attempts include PHP templates, Smarty etc, but they all have the same problem. They’re so complex that they really miss the point, you may as well write all the code from scratch. And then there’s the performance overhead. The theme mechanisms for things like Wordpress, Gallery, Mambo etc are much easier to work with.

Multiplying the problems with the templating engine is the way it’s been used. Within Confluence, the use of HTML in the construction of the pages is pitiful, as is the scripting, but I’m determined to clean it up. The structure of Confluence is also a bit of a mess, with many different types of pages and links off to this and that. This bloatware aspect is pretty frustrating; half the work is turning things off, trimming it back to make some sort of useful interface. There are so many unnecessary ‘features’ stuffed in.

Then there’s Confluence’s sensitivity to, well, everything. Making changes to themes or page decorators can cause all sorts of disastrous failures for the whole server! Doing all the ‘pretty stuff’ sure is tough going when the architecture gets in a huff and won’t play ball.

I’m sure it’s quite clear that I’ve come to dislike this product quite a bit due to my experiences on the technical front, and I haven’t even mentioned usability yet. Luckily somebody else has! I’m hoping Alex also grappled with these customisation demons that plague me…

See what people are blogging about: Confluence, wiki, custom website themes

Popularity: 13% [?]