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Re: Re: OT: Intranet Design

by legLess (Hermit)
on Dec 22, 2002 at 12:48 UTC ( [id://221739]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: OT: Intranet Design
in thread OT: Intranet Design

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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^3: OT: Intranet Design
by dws (Chancellor) on Dec 22, 2002 at 18:20 UTC
    Here are a few major differences intranets and regular web sites:

    You raise some good points, a few of which I'll take issue with:

    Your target audience is going to use the intranet regularly ... This means you can create a denser interface that doesn't hold people by the hand.
    We're venturing into web applications here, and to that extent you're correct. Applications that people use on a frequent basis can have denser interfaces. And you can deploy web applications on an intranet. I consider them separate but related beasts.

    You don't have to market to your intranet users.
    You may not have to sell to your intranet users, but you certainly have to market to them. Marketing is about letting people know what's there, and how it's useful to them. The email you get from HR reminding you that policy manuals are available on-line is a form of marketing. A sidebar on a main portal page listing key things that are new is marketing.
    By knowing up-front exactly which platforms you have to support you'll save huge amounts of time debugging cross-browser issues.
    True, though there always seems to be some fanatic who insists on running Netscape 4.7. :(
    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.
    Let's separate the points:

    First, many web sites let you post primary content. We're in one right now.

    The other point is whether having one consistent architecture and style maximizes usability. I don't agree that it does. While it's tempting imagine how wonderfully consistent and usable the world (or an intranet) would be if there were centralized control over style and meta-content (information structure), these impose a substantial hurdle on getting information out. In my experience, it's more important to get information out, even if it doesn't fit into an overriding structure. For big, semi-static entities like Human Resources, a common information structure makes sense. But for dynamic teams, I'd much rather let each choose whether they want to use some common mechanism, or whether they prefer to set up their own Slash/Everything engine, or even use MoveableType. Add some variety into the gene pool, and let natural selection do its thing. Starting off with a grand design is a form of premature optimization.

      The other point is whether having one consistent architecture and style maximizes usability. I don't agree that it does.

      I'm inclined to think that it does. More importantly though in my experience, giving users an interface for publishing content that limits their 'creativity' (ie: the page layout is built for them, all styling is done through CSS, etc) means they spend more time getting the words right and less time on the fluff. Left to their own devices, people tend to come up with page layouts that are so hard to maintain that they become a barrier to actually publishing anything, or worse still the initial publish happens but the updates don't.

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