Today’s Intranet teams are streamlining
processes and are working faster. A trend we saw last year that repeated
this year is for teams to go live with iterative changes rather than
wait to launch one new, huge intranet design. Agile or Agile-like
approaches were used effectively in a development and contributed to the
lower average time required to create the Intranet. The operative word
here is effectively, as employing Agile is not a silver bullet; if done
well, however, it can certainly streamline a project. (If done without
proper design integration, Agile coding will create a disjointed,
substandard user experience).
The noted trend toward an iterative
process has changed the way we’ve been measuring intranet-project
completion in the last two years. Prior to that, we only looked at one
single release of the “full” intranet. But now, for some designs, we’re
looking at iterations of the design, or even at just the functional
elements that were most recently changed.
This way of working is potentially more
practical for an organization producing an up-to-date and useful design.
The development challenges may seem less daunting with an iterative
approach, and the ability to see working results sooner may be more
gratifying too. As improvements occur incrementally, employees are
generally happier too, which can help with employee retention.
A possible setback of an iterative
approach, of course, is if the way employees do a task is changed out
from under them (as it happens too often), and leaves them less
productive and likely disgruntled. Thus, as designs iterate, it’s
important that employees be able to still accomplish tasks without
difficulty. No employee should wonder what mystery version of the
intranet will appear each day when logging in. Their top tasks, global
navigation, and core content sections should be designed early and stay
static. This will help provide the concrete foundation that users need.
Feature Trends
As for the user interface, intranets
often take a cue from web design, but in some areas intranets lead the
way. Strong trends in intranet features this year include:
Responsive Design. Like
last year, responsive intranet design is significant again,
Organizations overcame the usual concerns around intranet security and
offer employees access to expected content in varying ways.
Search Filters. The
most common new trend on intranets, this year is faceted search. Search
technology and planned content management with descriptive keywords make
this feature work for the users.
Hover effects for immediate information about search.
Intranet designers today focus on getting employees more information
faster with less user effort. Content on pages is more thorough, yet
concise. Rather than clutter pages, designs make use of hover effects to
display more information before a user makes a commitment to click and
follow through. Most commonly, pausing the cursor over a search result
displays more information about that result item.
Federated Search. This
is just a borderline trend as only a few organizations are doing this,
offering search capabilities that effectively query multiple knowledge
repositories, thus removing invisible awareness barriers often found on
intranets. A word of advice: make the searches in the various areas good
before attempting to federate.
Flat Design. Bevels,
shadows, and elaborate framing effects seem to have become about as
necessary as the human appendix, at least for this year.
Carousels. As in recent
years, carousels have a prominent presence on the intranet homepage. In
Design Annual fashion, the way these organizations present the
navigation and content further progresses carousel design for intranets.
Company Performance on Homepage. To inform and motivate employees,
Megamenus. Also seen in
years past, megamenus are helping employees discover layers deep in the
hierarchy with a simple waive of the mouse.
Clever Use of Video.
Today’s intranet designers recognize the potential and power of video.
And they are moving away from the idea of limiting how or when video can
be used on intranets.
Fat Footers. Display of
large footers at the bottom of intranet pages, giving employees one
more chance to find what they need when down there. These oversized
footers, separated from the main content area with a different
background colour and containing distinctly headed sections, are an
expected and obliging anchor on intranets.
Some Intranet Examples from the Middle East:
1. ARAMEX launches global Intranet
Based on Microsoft platform, intranet
forms part of ARAMEX world-wide advanced technology strategy: forms
basis for new customer service roll out
Amman, the international express and
freight forwarding company specializing in the Middle East and Indian
Sub-Continent regions announced it has launched its globally available
intranet based on advanced technologies from world leading software
company Microsoft Corporation. The global communications system will, in
the future, form the basis of the company's extranet, a service that
will give ARAMEX customers and suppliers access to the company's
globally held information resources.
The new intranet system will operate as
the single communications medium that gives ARAMEX staff all over the
world immediate access on all of the company's operational,
administrative, and customer related information. It also provides
information about the industries and markets that the company services.
The development comes about as a
2. Atlantis the Palm's intranet system
Atlantis The Palm, Dubai launched its
intranet system, Aquarius, in February last year to streamline
communication across the resort’s various departments, which employ more
than 3000 people. With phase one now well and truly under way, the team
is concentrating on building and launching phase two, which will
feature a more interactive platform that will also foster independence
among team members.
Rationale and Objective: The concept of
an exclusive Atlantis intranet system was initially introduced to
Atlantis team members in 2011. After receiving feedback on the
‘communications’ section of the hotel’s employee engagement index, the
management team began working on improving communication within and
among departments and diversifying the feedback channels at Atlantis.
Comments received as part of the survey also indicated that shared
drives were no longer the solution for communication across a large
team, which led to the IT and employee marketing teams working together
towards building the concept of internal system, Aquarius.
Another goal was to provide up to date
content –to make sure that all the information that we’re giving out is
current because this is the main concept of the intranet. Then of
course, the third was to be Atlantis branded, to create the same look
and feel that the main website of Atlantis has, so that people can
relate to it.
3. Saudi Food and Drug Authority
“Bawabaty” ( بوابتي ) which means my
portal in Arabic, is highly customizable; giving employees powerful
tools they need to do their work, and the freedom to do it in their own
way.
