June 18, 2012 at 8:08 am | Posted in best practice, beta testing, intranet, navigation, usability, user testing | 2 Comments
Tags: best practice, beta testing, intranet, navigation, usability, user testing
Many organisations are are planning to or already use mega menus on their intranet to help employees navigate to the information or tools they need to use. I have been involved in developing several mega menus based on different business needs while helping with SharePoint 2010. Some have been more successful than others at giving a great user experience……….and that’s what you are really aiming to achieve.
People need to be confident wherever they are in the intranet and with what they need to go and do next. I believe some navigation principles help you decide if a mega menu is for your intranet.
Navigation principles for mega menus
- It helps people get to what they need more quickly.
- The headings are consistently placed in the same position on every page.
- The headings are specific and clearly labelled to avoid any confusion or hesitation.
- The content under each heading is relevant to the heading’s title and links to the right page.
- The content under each heading should only be the most important and popular headings – don’t try to duplicate all your intranet.
- The size of the each section of links under each heading should be limited and be used.
- Test it with a sample of people first before launching or making any major changes every time.
My view is the mega menu must help people to get quickly and easily to the most important and popular pages they need to use on the intranet.
I have experienced both static mega menus (same headings, position nd links) and moveable menus that change as they follow you around from one part of the intranet to another. The feedback has been almost universal from people using them. Static menus work and changeable menus cause confusion and are avoided by most people.
When people are more familiar with and use the intranet more frequently maybe you can test with people want to change to moveable headings and content depending on where they are in the intranet?
February 7, 2012 at 9:19 am | Posted in benchmark, benefit, best practice, collaboration, content management, digital workplace, engagement, governance, homepage, intranet, mark morrell ltd, plan, publishing, research, SharePoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, training, usability, user testing, value, wiki | 1 Comment
Tags: applications, benchmark, benefit, best practice, beta testing, blog, bt intranet, collaboration, content, digital workplace, engagement, governance, help, homepage, intranet, intranet applications, Mark Morrell, plan, publishing, research, sharepoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, usability, user testing, value, wiki
Thinking about what is the best way to implement SharePoint 2010?
Are you looking for good examples of managing intranets?
Are you planning how to transform your digital workplace?
Maybe you want to use collaboration tools to increase employee engagement?
Now you can find helpful information on all these areas in one site. It combines my first-hand experience managing BT’s intranet with my knowledge and help improving other intranets to show how you can improve your intranets and digital workplaces.
If I can help you further please contact me whenever you want to.
December 14, 2011 at 10:05 am | Posted in benefit, beta testing, intranet, plan, strategy, value | 1 Comment
Tags: benefit, beta testing, intranet, money, strategy, user testing, value
I recently discussed this subject with some intranet practitioners in Copenhagen at an IntraTeam community of practice meeting. Several people there had yet to experience the excitement of knowing a business case had been approved or the disappointment of one being rejected.
I know how both of these experiences feel from first-hand experience when I was the BT intranet manager! It was the frustration rather than the disappointment with the rejection of a business case that has stayed with me longer. Frustration because I couldn’t get the people deciding to ‘get it’ and realise how much it would improve the intranet, the experience of people using it, and the business overall that I felt so passionately about.
How to succeed
You need to ask yourself if a business case is needed at all. Maybe by using open source technology there will be no costs that need you to ask for funding? Maybe you do need to later when you have something more convincing, more persuasive even more tangible, in the benefits you can demonstrate have been achieved by what you are doing.
Tip 1: Pick your timing to give yourself the best chance.
You need sponsors, preferably senior sponsors, better still the CEO as your sponsor. The more strategic and senior the level of support gained by you in your organisation, the better your chances of success and your efforts and time to achieve it will be rewarded.
Tip 2: Build up your relationship with your stakeholders.
You need to be complete in your business case. That means include all the costs – technology, licences, support, training, and implementation. But don’t forget all the savings – paper, accommodation, time, benefits – productivity, better decision making, risks avoided to brand, and reputation. There could also be revenue generated from extra sales because what you offer could mean more time and ability to compete than before for new business.
Tip 3: Don’t leave off something which could come back to bite you and affect your credibility with future business cases.
You need to consider the wider context for your business case. Is your organisation looking to expand or is it just trying to survive? What is your organisation’s strategy? Is your intranet strategy in line with it? Is your business case connected to your strategy (make sure it is!)? You need to align what you will achieve with the organisation’s values – teamwork, openness = collaboration tools.
Tip 4: Choose your agenda and use the language your audience will recognise.
You need to make your business case as compelling as possible. That means showing as many savings – money not leaving the organisation – and income – extra money coming in – that can justify. While there will be many benefits from productivity and reduced risks, it is the bottom line that will be the main focus and the hardest to achieve.
Tip 5: Focus on the savings and benefits which are most important to your organisation.
Lastly don’t forget to use every weapon in your artillery to help convince your sponsors of what your proposal will achieve. In addition to the five tips you can highlight how it fits with the organisations’ values, the downside of not approving the business case and risks being taken by that decision.
Good luck, be passionate about your business case. GO FOR IT AND WIN!
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 am | Posted in best practice, content management, engagement, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd, navigation, publishing, research, standards, usability, user testing | 3 Comments
Tags: best practice, content, engagement, governance, intranet, killer content, Mark Morrell, navigation, publishing, research, standards, training, usability, user testing
Since 1996 I have been pioneering the best ways to increase adoption of new tools on the intranet. For the 9 years as the BT Intranet manager and since then as a consultant, I have experienced different ways organisations have encouraged adoption of technology. My top 10 ways are:
Research what people need
Ask what their biggest pain points are. What could be made easier? What is missing from the intranet? What is good and they want more of?
Prioritise improvements
How important is the task to the person and to their organisation? How many people are affected by this? How frequently is it happening?
Early adopters to become ambassadors
Identify adopters who have the most urgent need to try something new to solve a business problem. Involve adopters in proposed changes as early as possible to get their buy-in. Satisfied adopters will be your best ambassadors and spread the word.
Make the first experience a good experience
You need to encourage not discourage usage to avoid unnecessary costs in extra effort. Act on early adopters’ feedback. Test with usability experts. Compare with existing best practice.
Advance communications so no nasty surprises
Manage peoples’ expectations. Clearly explain what it is you are offering and where they can get advice, training and help.
Consistent navigation
Give people a bridge from wherever they were on your intranet to get to another part more easily. Show the same headings and position on every page. Find out what are the best navigation headings that would help people most.
Personalise and target information
Give people the relevant information they need. Give people the applications they need to use. Give people confidence their personal information is secure.
Embed standards into templates
Reduce the barrier for publishing. Make it as easy as possible to do. Focus on what is important – the quality of the information – not how to use the technology. Consistently apply governance. Embed standards in the templates.
Compliance tools give users confidence
Standards need to be enforced when publishers’ behaviour falls below best practice. Compliance tools enforce important standards – business, regulatory and legal requirements – and minimise time and administration. Users’ confidence in the integrity of the information must not be compromised.
Clear responsibilities and roles
Who is responsible for managing the intranet strategy, standards, IT infrastructure? What should everyone involved – publishers, contributors – need to do? Align intranet roles with performance management and job descriptions.
October 19, 2011 at 10:43 am | Posted in best practice, beta testing, collaboration, digital workplace, engagement, intranet, social media | 1 Comment
Tags: best practice, beta testing, bt intranet, collaboration, digital workplace, engagement, social media, user testing
I posted recently that I will be a panellist at the Social Workplace conference in London, UK, on 1 November. Ahead of the conference I was interviewed for my views on the social workplace by Jon Ingham discussing engagement and collaboration.
You can see my interview on YouTube if you are interested or just curious to see me in my digital workplace. There is also a great interview with Sam Marshall who will be at the conference too.
It was a bit wierd talking to Jon using my webcam and not fully appreciating my facial expressions!
I hope to meet you at the conference or tweet about it on the day if you can’t make it.
March 31, 2011 at 9:00 am | Posted in application, benchmark, intranet, mobile, publishing, SharePoint 2010, social media, usability, user testing | 8 Comments
Tags: applications, benchmark, bt intranet, intranet applications, mobile, sharepoint 2010, user testing, users
When will organisations start designing and creating applications, web pages and social media tools with mobile devices as the first priority before PC users?
More and more people are using smartphones for their work. While travelling or working remotely from their normal place of work they need to use their intranet.
But we still design for PC users as the first priority. This can mean it is more difficult than it need be when using a smartphone on your intranet wasting unnecessary time or having to involve others taking them away from their work.
When will the tipping point come and first priority be to check that anyone with a smartphone can have a great experience using a new intranet tool?
When the Intranet Benchmarking Forum last benchmarked BT’s intranet they said “BT’s intranet is designed to support mobile workers so it is fully accessible from mobile devices. Mobile users use a text-based interface.”
People in BT can use their Blackberrys to:
With the rollout of SharePoint 2010 it is critical that people can use their Blackberrys to do this. As you can see from comparing these screenshots showing SP2010 sites using a PC and Blackberry that is possible.
How long before the experience is as good or even better when you use a smartphone compared to a PC though?
October 11, 2010 at 10:20 am | Posted in benefit, best practice, beta testing, governance, help, homepage, intranet, navigation, plan, publishing, research, search, social media, standards, training, usability, user testing, value | 2 Comments
Tags: benefit, best practice, beta testing, governance, help, homepage, intranet, navigation, plan, publishing, research, search, standards, usability, user testing, users, value
I have just finished reading ‘Designing intranets – Creating sites that work’, the latest book written by James Robertson. For those of you who have seen James present or read his blog posts, you will know he gives a clear view to help you – whether you agree with it or not.
James is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on intranets. He has used this experience to write this book.
Whether you are new to intranets or, like me, involved as an intranet manager for years, this book will be very useful to you.
This book will cover all you need to know to be able to create intranet sites that work. And it is the ‘sites that work’ words that make this book different to others. It is more than just a pleasing design. It is what else is needed to be researched, planned and created too that will make your time and effort better spent. Even more, you want the people using your intranet to get the best out of it. This book helps you to do just that!
I have found it helps reinforce why BT’s intranet is like it is and why the things I do are important such as:
As I write this blog post ‘Designing intranets’ is by my side. Some parts of James’ book are looking well used already as I’ve thumbed through them several times for tips to help me!
Why not treat yourself? Read James’ book and help make your life easier and your intranet better by reading James’ book.
August 18, 2010 at 4:13 pm | Posted in benchmark, best practice, beta testing, intranet, standards, user testing | 2 Comments
Tags: benchmark, best practice, beta testing, bt intranet, feedback, research, user testing, users
I regularly ask users what they feel about BT’s intranet. I use a variety of methods to do this.
1. Survey - I ask each year questions to compare with previous years for trends as well as new areas to focus on.
2. Beta testing - I ask for people to test out new features to make sure it meets their needs or improve further so it does before launching.
3. Feedback – every page has a feedback link for anyone to ask for more information or raise a concern.
Find out more in Intranet Ideas article ‘Conducting an Intranet Performance Review’ which has comments from me and other intranet professionals.
April 28, 2010 at 10:35 am | Posted in application, intranet, oracle, standards, usability, user testing | 2 Comments
Tags: applications, intranet applications, oracle, usability, usability standards, user testing, users
Oracle is holding their first Usability Board Europe meeting on May 5th. I’ve been to a previous Oracle meeting and am keen to improve the usability of all applications BT uses.
At this meeting Oracle and founding members will:
The usability issues I will be raising are:
- Out of the box usability must be high
- Better usability does not mean more features. It means features must be more usable.
- Think of users when offering help.
- Don’t focus on making error messages better, aim to prevent users making errors.
I’m sharing some slides I plan to use at the meeting. Anyone want to add anything?
January 29, 2010 at 9:08 am | Posted in application, intranet, oracle, user testing | 5 Comments
Tags: applications, bt intranet, intranet applications, oracle, usability, user testing
I met with Oracle and other Oracle customers earlier this week. This was the first of what Oracle hope will be regular meetings with their major customers in Europe. The main focus was on content and document management product features and roadmaps.
I left with the impression that Oracle seriously wants to continue improving the usability of Universal Content Management by engaging with their customers through webcasts and meetings. The next release of 11G using Fusion promises to move towards what I would like – a simple publishing experience which needs minimal IT involvement.
I would like the following to happen next:
- Oracle should hold frequent webcasts with customers to cover future direction of UCM and other products like E-Business Suite.
- Customer representatives should have more business users attending with their IT partners. I was in a small minority at this week’s meeting.
- Intranet managers who are Oracle customers should make sure they attend these meetings.
- Intranet managers should improve their relationship with their IT partners so they are more involved in decision criteria on products so it covers usability and productivity costs during its lifetime.
- Meetings should focus more on how Oracle products can be used by customers than on the components that make up the technology.
- An agreed set of usability standards underpin the direction of product roadmaps.
We should never forget the goal is to make it easier for people to do their work by using technology that is giving best overall value to the business not to have the latest whizzy feature which doesn’t.
And that applies to any software from any vendor our organisations buys.
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