Does your intranet suck? Redesign it.

Over the years, I’ve had to consult, audit, recommend and redesign a number of organizational intranet properties as the Director of Digital and Creative Services at CKR Interactive. It’s always the same. “Our intranet sucks and I want to scream when I can’t find what I need to do,” then we’d come in and make sense of it all, and fix the problem. In the beginning, the recommendations were based on best practice, experience and intuition, but for this exercise to be successful a method needed to be established in order to ensure that these recommendations weren’t just superficial, based solely on generalized best practices, or what I thought was the right thing to do. Derived from research of successful processes, and through my own process iterations I’ve landed on a method that has proven to work, and work well for any size intranet.

When redesigning an intranet, you need to follow a process that is underpinned by appraising the current situation and then plan accordingly. Begin with understanding both the business and user requirements. Progress to strategic planning, establish a governance, and then move into functional planning, information architecture and choose the right solution — all before you create any sort of visual design. This method is organized into five (5) distinct phases:

1. Appraise
2. Plan
3. Solve
4. Implement
5. Engage

Appraise

Understanding what the current landscape is and what you want it to be. Engage with your user base; ask them what they want and need, and incorporate it into your site plan. Employee interviews, surveys and stakeholder workshops help to understand overall satisfaction, define key priorities and outline both user and business requirements.

Note: This type of appraisal should continue frequently, involve your users to continually evolve your design and architecture and ensure the longevity of your investment.

Your assessment should also include data and metrics analysis, a critical measurement in order to understand the most important content your users look for on a regular basis. For example, many organizations have used search logs to identify shortcut menu candidates, since users search for things they can’t easily find in the navigation.

Plan

Build a plan that addresses key priorities. All planning decisions should be rooted in your appraisal findings. The key to a successful intranet information architecture (IA) is grouping information according to how employees use it, rather than by who creates it. User experience should be crafted around priority tasks rather than departmental organization. A deep focus on wayfinding, accessibility, technology integrations and simplification is required.

Once planning has yielded a solid and agreed upon strategy, the next priority is to focus on a governance and establish a framework that enables the decision-making and planning processes for the intranet. It provides support for the intranet team and assists with the current and future smooth running of the intranet. A clear set of policies and guidelines for the intranet will support good practice, avoid confusion and ensure consistency of approach.

Solve

“While there are a number of ways to keep employees connected with your organization and each other, the modern intranet is perhaps the best tool for the job” (Axero). From customizable and out of the box platforms, to homegrown solutions, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all offering. The planning phase will produce results that inform your technology decisions. Your technology solution should support project dependencies, feature requirements, and operational mandatories in order to support your team’s goals and objectives.

In some situations a mix of technologies working in synergy is the best approach. Understand how your 3rd party services and tools can can be easier accessed by integrating them with your intranet. Whether it’s making it the preferred funnel to accomplish a task, or establishing single sign-on so users can automatically log in to see pay stubs and update personal information. The key is finding the processes you can improve and making them better by using the intranet.

Implement

It is in the implementation phase that the first three phases of the framework are heavily referenced and set into motion. The groundwork has been laid and construction must begin. Ensure project success through frequent iteration, both early and often. Establish a feedback loop to test integrations, user experience and administration tasks, design and overall usability. Ensure all players involved are aware of the full project plan and maintain clear and open communication. Project milestones are to be established, reviewed and measured throughout the entire implementation phase.

Engage

Make the launch of your intranet a six-month process, not a one-day event. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. Give respect to your efforts in accomplishing this goal and recognize a successful launch requires repetitive messaging, training, support, tweaking and gathering feedback. Frequently review content and updates and make sure they’re useful and support the intranet’s larger strategy.

Including your employees gives them a sense of ownership over the new intranet. If possible engage employees in the project in as many ways as possible, this will aid in both marketing and ambassadorship of your new intranet.

A marketing or awareness campaign is required, especially in the areas of your organization where working at your desk and checking your emails constantly isn’t a thing. Promote your intranet so that users know its value and are motivated to use it. Educate your employees on why the site is of value to both them and the company. Your intranet’s potential success and performance measurement won’t yield great results unless there is mass adoption and enough data to measure.

Who is this guy?

Practicing design since 2001 and ever learning. Brandon is currently the Director of Digital and Creative Services for CKR Interactive, one of the nation’s largest employment marketing agencies, and has been a part of the organization since 2007. Brandon is responsible for providing leadership, innovative and strategic solutions to meet the needs of a very industry diverse clientele.

Before working at CKR Interactive, Brandon held a position as Multimedia Designer at Motorola Mobility (Formerly Netopia, Inc.) and led the design team for website fulfillment for their partner network. He was also instrumental in the enhancement and creative development of their proprietary web development platform NXG™ and was in charge of in-house and partner design-team training of the platform and demonstrating product releases.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Brandon is comfortable making the hard decisions. He has a passion for design, and solving interesting problems within a collaborative team environment. Autonomous, competitive, curious and analytical with a tenacious work ethic, he considers the world of design a labor of love.