There were some good things being said, and by real people who have done the hard yards. They’re not “industry luminaries”, but people out there in the trenches working out how to create effective intranets. Grounded and real are two words I would apply to the conference.

Then there was my presentation, a tad more abstract, but I felt it went well. Slides below.

I felt compelled to steer my presentation towards audience participation, if only because of the collective knowledge in the room; about half the room were presenting at the conference so I was learning as much, if not more, than I was dishing out. That’s the downside of being a consultant, you rarely get that rich experience that in-house staff have. Some great examples were offered by the audience, complementing my own examples.

There were one or two people twittering, you can follow the conversation on #smid.

Happy to hear your comments on my slides, either here or on slidehsare.

Related posts:

1. Strategically managing intranet developments
2. Using cultural probes for intranet user research
3. Design research workshop at OZ-IA

This session will take a case study approach outlining projects undertaken by Patrick Kennedy for clients within Australia

• Assessing user psychology: identifying needs and analysing behaviours
• Streamlining processes to simplify work flow and usability
• Personalising the intranet experience by creating user centred design

Hope to see you there!

Related posts:

1. Day 2 at Strategically Managing Intranet Developments
2. Intranet Leadership Forum
3. Intranet redesign for Canon

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).

Related posts:

1. Intranet redesign for Canon
2. Using cultural probes for intranet user research
3. Intranet Leadership Forum

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?)

Related posts:

1. Cultural probes and magic things
2. OzCHI tutorial: cultural probes
3. Intranet Leadership Forum

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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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?).

Related posts:

1. Intranet (re)design wrap-up
2. Intranet Leadership Forum
3. Day 2 at Strategically Managing Intranet Developments

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.

Related posts:

1. Intranets: the beast we love to hate
2. Intranet redesign for Canon
3. Intranet (re)design wrap-up

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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Now, I can think of quite a few reasons to steer clear of working on an intranet. For instance, there’s the dreaded ‘internal project’ syndrome, characterised by lack of support and resources. Add to this is the view that “it’s just a couple of web pages, you can just whip that up this afternoon right?”. Other core business systems would never be instituted in this way.

There’s typically a constant stream of work, as well trying to plan for the future. Balancing all the things they could possibly do, versus day to day maintenance, is a nightmare situation. Intranets are a journey not a destination but quite often it’s seen as a discrete project; something you build and then don’t have to touch. So planning is crucial, but planning what to do and when, with limited resources, is often the biggest dilemma with an intranet.

Intranet teams find it difficult to get recognition of their plight and the resources needed. Things get worse whenever ‘corporate systems’ are involved (interfacing with them is one of the most powerful things an intranet can do, ala portal), which can quickly turn into a long, hard slog. Particularly when viewed from the point of view of ‘internet time’ these difficulties and delays can make it look like the intranet is at a standstill and those in the drivers seat have lost the plot. Intranet team members often burn-out trying to get everything done, feeling overwhelmed and unsatisfied.

In short, there are many real problems with working on an intranet, mostly concerned with strategy, planning and management. Intranet managers and the people within organisations who have to deal with these issues are usually not web designers or developers…they’re more likely to be librarians or administrative personnel. (Answers to many of these issues are emerging and generally the situation is improving in many of the organisations I work with.)

But the thing is I don’t think these are the reasons why web designers and developers don’t like intranets. Their reasons seem to be more like:

• Most intranets suck — lousy design, out of date, zillions of pages of text, slow, unreliable. In a word: useless. This doesn’t set them in a very flattering light. Why would anyone in their right mind want to work on an intranet when this is the only example they’ve seen?
• Internal website — a lot of issues still surround this misunderstanding that intranets are just ‘internal websites’. This is the wrong way of thinking which leads to useless intranets. A paradigm shift is needed to design an intranet properly.
• Low profile — intranets are pretty much invisible. You can’t tell your friends about it. There’s no recognition internally, or externally—conferences and web design awards rarely want to hear about the super-duper intranet you’ve created. It won’t add a big brand to your CV.
• Not sexy — intranets are tools not toys. The level of creative is low or nonexistent, which will immediately put off many designers. You probably won’t win an award for an intranet, or have people make the “ooooh” noise when you show them your design.
• Insignificant — intranets are usually thought of as little projects that aren’t worthy of their attention. The impact a good intranet can have on an organisation doesn’t factor in a web designers equation…there’s no fame and fortune.

Most of these perceptions are only perpetuated by those higher up the chain of command who don’t understand the purpose or value of an intranet, and put emphasis on the wrong things.

Of course, I should say that it’s not a case of designers and developers (and user experience folks) not being involved at all. On the contrary, I’ve seen many cases where designers or design agencies have been given work to redesign intranets. The problem is they don’t know what to do since they’re used to working on (public) websites. So they get plenty of opportunities to do the work, but they do it badly. And it’s not necessarily their fault.

But even in these scenarios, it’s a struggle to get teams to work on intranet projects. Intranets are the projects you run away from. Don’t touch them with a ten foot pole (I believe this is a uniquely Australian phrase, so heaven only knows what the rest of you make of it). I should say, I’m talking about external teams of designers and developers here, in-house teams usually have little choice.

There appear to be two things needed. Firstly, I think we need to raise the level of awareness around how to do intranets properly. We need to get those who know (and they do exist!) to educate those with the opportunity. A cross pollination of skills. That should increase the general quality of the solutions being produced (for the good of man-kind yada yada).

Many people who specialise in intranet strategy, information management and knowledge management have developed great ideas around these areas. These are business people—intranet managers, CIOs, CKOs and librarians—people who didn’t necessarily choose the role of intranet guardian. They have little or no connection with the web community on the ‘outside’, yet many have at least attempted to bridge the gap by taking a keen interest in web design and usability. They read lots of books and go to training courses and seminars.

The cross pollination seems decidedly unidirectional. I’d like to see things swing the other way to a certain extent. The web design community could learn a lot about intranets from sources they wouldn’t normally consider.

At face value, the web community appears open to new things. Many designers have embraced usability and information architecture. Web developers have embraced accessibility. The growth of UX is testament to this openness. Indeed those in the user experience field often look to other disciplines (such as anthropology and psychology) to learn techniques and expand their knowledge.

But at the end of the day this seems to be only on the fringe. I think the core of the community is fairly insular and happy to continue doing what they do in the way which they have always done it. Thus, when asked to redesign an intranet, many of those given the opportunity will approach it in precisely the same manner as a public website (which they might be pretty good at).

A gauge I often use to track the state-of-the-art is the range of books available. At present, you would struggle to find one book that mentions intranets (other than propagating the ‘internal website’ misnomer). So the cross pollination is not being facilitated. Much of this may be due to the very nature of intranets; internal, confidential, secret. This may or may not change with the arrival of NNg’s Ten Best Intranets, Step Two’s Intranet Innovation Awards and the Intranet Leadership Forum.

The second issue—and the one more relevant to this post—is that of promoting the benefits of intranet work, and selling this to designers and developers is probably worth a shot. For starters, there is a level of gratification surrounding a successful intranet that you just don’t get with a website; seeing—if not actually experiencing—the productivity gains that result from your work is very satisfying. Other selling points include:

• Captive audience — this brings many advantages, particularly around cross-browser development and engaging users (recruiting usability test subjects!).
• Bigger challenge — to flip things on their head, the challenges with an intranet are bigger than with a website, in my opinion. If you like building meaty sites, intranets will get you off.
• More functionality — the opportunity for more complex interactions (beyond browsing pages) exists more so on intranets: tools for staff, personalisation, integration with other business systems. Your typical website has less (or none) of this.
• Freedom to experiment — with an intranet there isn’t that huge pressure of the ‘live site’. You get more than one shot (within reason) at getting it right. This makes it easier for incremental design and evolving solutions to be used.
• Commercial free — whilst it would be very wrong to say that intranets are free from politics, but at least the more overt aspects that designers and developers find frustrating (banner ads etc) do not usually exist on an intranet.

Generally, as web design (and its practitioner) matures, the emphasis is again shifting from art to function (precisely what design should be all about). Empowering staff fits squarely in the category of making things work better, as opposed to simply making things look better. This a key benefit in my mind. Or maybe I’m just getting old and nothing has change, except me.

Will this appeal to the web folks? I’m not sure, but I’d like to think so. With reference to my recent rant about web developers having the power, perhaps the company’s intranet is the vehicle with which to not only allow developers to get more actively involved, but also to raise the profile of working on intranets.

Related posts:

1. Intranets—why you should care
2. Intranet redesign for Canon
3. Intranet (re)design wrap-up

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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