Championing the intranet user – how to run intranet user research
Listening to your intranet users is important, but you have to be able to put it all together in a structured business case so that you raise the money and give people what they need.
Listening to your intranet users is important, but you have to be able to put it all together in a structured business case so that you raise the money and give people what they need.
‘Design’ is much more than just how your intranet looks, it’s about how it works. Prototypes help stakeholders and end users understand and critique layout and interaction, helping us create an intranet that meets expectations.
One of the first things you define when designing a new intranet is the navigation. This can be done long before any intranet ‘designs’ are created.
The information architecture, how people navigate through the structure of your intranet, and how topics relate to one another, can make or break the usability of your intranet. By involving end-users in group and individual exercises you can discover what will work for people, and so meet users’ expectations with more intuitive navigation menus.
Corporate websites are meticulously designed to evoke trust, retain attention, and to be easy to use. Intranets often lag behind such attention to detail.
There are many ways to build a new intranet, or revamp an ageing one. Whatever your approach, your objective must be to create a useful, useable intranet that adds value to your business.