Quothe
dws:
Treat an intranet site the same as you would an internet site
With all due respect, I don't think this is correct; if it is correct, it's in a very subtle way that many people will miss (no sarcasm intended*). I've spent a long time designing intranets, and I like them. Here are a few major differences intranets and regular web sites:
- On an intranet, you can assume greater user expertise with the interface (especially if you do some training). Your target audience is going to use the intranet regularly for their entire stay at the company. This means you can create a denser interface that doesn't hold people by the hand as much as some web sites have to.
- Flipside, on an intranet the user's time isn't just money, it's your money. Every usability or information design mistake you make will cost your company money the second it goes live as users try (and fail) to find the information they need.
- You don't have to market to your intranet users. This rule starts to bend at the enterprise level, but for 250 people it holds true. You don't need to put nearly as much screen real estate or graphical effort into branding as on a public web site. You've already sold these people - they work with you - so you can get right down to the nitty-gritty (e.g. finding information) faster.
- On an intranet, you know exactly how much time you have to spend on accessibility or region-specific issues (e.g. languages). Chances are you know if one of your co-workers is blind, or can't read English. You can make a truly informed decision, something not possible on the web where you're at best playing with averages.
- Likewise for client support. How many of your users use Lynx? Or Netscape 4? Is the company standardized on Mozilla? By knowing up-front exactly which platforms you have to support you'll save huge amounts of time debugging cross-browser issues.
- Web sites don't typically allow their users to post primary content, but intranets should, so you must standardize heavily. Don't let it turn into a ransom note of 250 different styles. Don't even allow for the possibility of someone breaking your standards for information structure - that's a huge usability hit.
Lastly, have fun with it. Intranets, like web sites, have personalities, or voices. Your users will be more engaged if they feel like it's their intranet, not just something created by a faceless geek or marketroid.
(*By which I mean: the cardinal rule of web design is, "Consider thy users." Appropriate consideration of intranet users will lead you to many of the differences between web sites and intranets. So by that token, yes, develop them the same way. But it's a bit of a tautology.)
--
man with no legs, inc.