Social Intranet Design Strategies: Putting People First

Topics We’ll Discuss

Creating the Intranet Experience / Ambience

Your Intranet Front Door

Build Culture and Ensure Engagement

A Fat Intranet: How to Avoid the Excess Weight

Repeat Business: The End Goal for Intranet Success

Carolyn Douglas | www.intranetconnections.com@carolyndouglas

“Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff”

Steve Jobs

Early Days of DesignCirca 1998 web site design

Design 2011

We’ve come a long way in web design and enhanced usability

Modern design MUST make its way onto our intranets

Creating the Experience

What tone and perception doesthis image convey?

What do you think the ambience would be at Sanafir?

What kind of experience do youthink you would have?

Sanafir is a popular restaurantin Vancouver on Granville Street


Bright | Modern | RelaxedPunches of Color


• Create Ambience• Set the Tone• Put People First

Ambience

• Modern• Easy to Use• Valuable

Perception

Aesthetics Matter

Good Design can Engage

Use professionalgraphics that donot distract frominformation

Make it easyfor employeesto find theinformation theyneed

Embed externaltools that helpemployees

Ask for feedbackand opinions

Use a pop of color to focusattention on key elements

It’s HOW you use the Intranet

It’s not the technologyIt is HOW you choose to use it that makes the difference

Think About Your Design

2. when in doubt: go white

3. choose 3 main colors

4. consistent = ease of use

5. reflect company culture

1. professional: no clipart

6. put people first

You have designed around building an experience

Now to Your Intranet Front Door ... aka the Home Page

1. What do you want employees to see?

2. How do you want them to feel?

3. Where do you want them to go?


Your Intranet Front Door

1

•Engage

2

•Inform

3

•Secret Ingredient

Engage and Inform

Intranet

Information

Push ContentPersonalize / Pull Content

Find People and Info Interact with People and Info

Relevant & TimelyCurrent & Quality Content Feeds, Bookmarks

Alerts, Subscriptions, Widgets

Secret Ingredient: People

Employees submit photos thatare shown in background

Employees can weigh in through polls, ratings and comments from the Front DoorPhotos of co-workers

Fun, interesting, creativeGood images, visualGood labels “Wikilumbia”

Your Intranet should be about PEOPLE; your company is made up of PEOPLE

An Award Winning Intranet

A Good Front Door Will ...

Feature People Learn about the people: employee

spotlights Tell stories about customers and good

service Interview employees, share success stories Engage and Inform Provide polls, embed videos, slideshows Quick links to popular content and tools Inform employees: news, articles, blogs

Consistent Navigation

Think like an employee Short labels

Make it easy

Use engaging terms

Good navigation

Get creative

Make it obvious

Simple + Consistent

Take the time to *think* like an employeeMake it easy for them, logical, obviousGet fun, get creative, get engagingShort labels, not too many optionsDon’t overwhelm, simple-simple-simple

Gateway to Killer Apps

Rich Social Profiles

aka

Employee Directory

Finding People / Contact InfoFinding People with KnowledgeFinding People with Similar InterestsFinding People with Skill Sets.... and now SHARING with those PPL

Visual + Clean + Simple NavigationMake it easy to find & interact with people

Put your “killer apps” front and center in yournavigation

#1 Killer App?

You’ve got your employees through the Front Door, what now?

What are your goals for the intranet?

What consistent thread is going to bind the user experience?

Culture and engagement top of mind


Culture and Engagement

Use your intranet to support and build upon your corporate culture

Good Branding

Bonnier’s intranet is visual with an emphasis on people. The site isbranded to their corporate identity.

Many intranet elementsare incorporated andsimilar to their public-facing web sites

Good Design

Bonnier’s Intranet has a similardesign aesthetic to theirpublic-facing web site

Culture and Engagement

The glue that binds a good user experience

Involve executives. Ask them to contribute and have a presence on your intranet. Ask them to engage and share

1. Aesthetics2. Consistency

3. Culture / People 4. Engagement

Add fun

Keeping your Intranet Skinny

Focus on a clear purpose Communicate that purpose Delegate content review to publishers Set & enforce deletion guidelines Clean up clutter with Archived content Front door = relevant, timely, interesting Feedback: survey your employees Stats: know your popular areas

Repeat Business and Word of Mouth! Your end goal

Recap in creating the intranet experience with good design

1. Set the tone, build ambience, good design can engage

2. Feature people on your Intranet Front Door

3. Build your design around people; company culture and engagement

4. Keep the intranet skinny and focused


Intranet Design Resources

http://www.steptwo.com.au/products/designing-intranets

http://www.pebbleroad.com/articles/view/managers-guidebook-on-intranet-redesign-projects/

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-business/30-more-ways-to-a-better-intranet-012817.php

http://blogs.intranetconnections.comhttp://twitter.com/carolyndouglas

http://www.intranetconnections.com

Intranet Connections: Build on Culture with our Social Intranet Software

Intranet Connections combines business tools and social sharing to offer easy to use intranet software

Social Intranet Design Strategies: Putting People First

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