Programme

Thursday 1 November 2007 (9:00 - 17:00)

Breakfast from 8:30

Intranets are important tools for communication, business processes, document storage, and information retrieval at organizations large and small. But because many intranets are pieced together, suffer from resource and budget issues, and are developed by many different groups with different design ideas, they often have the effect of frustrating users and wasting precious work hours in fruitless searches for information.

Our usability research and intranet design competitions have helped us develop conclusions about what makes a well-designed intranet and how you can build one in any organization.

The course covers guidelines and lessons learned from our user testing of 27 intranets at companies large and small in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Most important, the course will cover examples of many different intranets, both well-designed ones and those with usability issues. Unlike Internet website designers, many intranet designers never have the opportunity to see any intranet other than their own.

Course Outline

• Review of intranets: general goals, components, and features
• Discussion of usability guidelines, including design examples and usability test results
• Personalization and login
• Search and navigation
• Killer apps and anti-killer apps
• News and content
• Usability of common applications and features, such as:

o human resource information
o employee directory
o time sheets
o job listings
o policies
o expense reports
o information about internal organizations

• Management and organizational issues that impact intranet design
• Tips for conducting your own intranet usability tests with a small budget and tight schedule