Name bringing web best practices to sharepoint intranets Virgil Carroll president high monkey

about me From the great State of Alaska Certified Athletic Trainer Masters in Instructional Design (from UAB) User Experience Aficionado Been building websites since 1998 Been building SharePoint since 2001 Blog:

about high monkey Been around since 1998 (HMC name since 2004) Offices in Minnesota and Michigan Clients throughout the US and Canada Core Competencies Web and interface design SharePoint / CMS consulting User Experience

why intranets fail

Its not what you think ReasonPercentage Lack of Executive Support22% Other, bigger priorities18% Lack of interest13% Business specific issues12% Policies10% Cost7% Other9% Reference: Nielsen Norman Group DO YOU NOTICE WHAT IS MISSING?

ITS NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY

Collaborative experiences still sucks Even with improved systems, they are not keeping up with the ever changing enterprise Projects that start well go wrong quickly due to perceived ‘business needs’ Business still doesn’t understand people’s time costs money

The resources we need aren’t there Most SharePoint intranet teams still feel understaffed People experience implementation takes $$ Technology changes rapidly, businesses don’t No matter how much we want it, TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT FIX THE PROBLEM

web best practices for intranets

why use web best practices? People think intranets are websites, not SharePoint Most intranets focus on finding information not collaboration Like a website, if you have to teach someone how to use an intranet, you have failed

talk to people not on your team Good intranets will include feedback from other people Requirements interviews Discovery workshops Surveys You must balance opinions with the questions you ask ‘What would you like to see’ vs. ‘What challenges do you encounter with our current intranet’ A ‘wish list’ build will fail REMEMBER Just because someone has an opinion, doesn’t mean they are right

example good info “HR forms are important, but getting to my team site is more” “Why do I have to go to 3 different systems to figure out all my employee stuff” “I don’t understand different department acronyms” wishful thinking “People really want to know about project updates” “The page should know who I am and only show me what I want to see” “We should have a chat window where I can ask questions”

your people should always be first We believe our people know us better than they do If ever in doubt, ask any person to recite your org chart Often treat employees like its their first day Unlike Facebook, intranets are not suppose to help people waste time Focus on functional-based results Latest news is only important to the communications group Understanding their stories For large, multi-discipline organizations consider creating personas / customer journeys Accessibility

example

getting around should be easy Organize information according to how your people think Card sorting Tree tests Navigation should be simple and act like a multiple choice question Mega-menus can be useful when used well

example

good design supports function We don’t call it ‘branding’ its design Design should never be used for the sake of pretty colors Balance must be established between the design and getting people to what they need to do Color contrast can help people be successful Making it mobile Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should Popular frameworks: Bootstrap, skeleton, responsive grid system Use media queries vs device channels

UX best practices

example: too little

example: too much

example: just right

make sure search … works People are really poor searchers You have to handle all the variabilities They don’t know what they are looking for They don’t know how to spell Refiners that are relevant Remove SharePoint objects from the results Great use of 2013

example

documents are NOT content Documents are for reading ‘stuff’ longer than people will read on a screen Develop content standards, consistent tone and plans to govern Find a good balance between too much and too little Just because content resides somewhere else doesn’t mean people want to go there too

tips: what people want to read Content that’s scannable Bullet points High level information up front, can dig further if desired Easy to read and understand Up to date information 25

example: how do people read on the web? 26

example: how people spend their time 27 People at most read 20% of the words on a webpage People are much more likely to scroll past the fold if the first content they see matches their need

learn from your logs Search logs Great source for understanding Spelling challenges Search patterns Many searches for obvious things mean they are not Web analytics Great source for understanding What people really do on your intranet How non-search people look for information Creating ‘push paths’ or placing of content in multiple locations SharePoint web analytics is still crap, use Google analytics

example

separate storage from presentation Content may need to be re-used Allows authors to store and work on content ‘where they want’ Good use of 2013 Roll up content summaries via CQWP or CSWP Use audience targeting to further refine

example: content from different sources

example: content on multiple pages Home My Employment Forms Expense Sheet Documents and Forms Expense Sheet Company News Departments HR Expense Sheet

example: sharepoint 2013

use the ‘modularness’ of sharepoint Centralize CSS and media assets Use proper page structure for flexibility and future updates In 2013, display templates add another layer of flexibility Create structure that content contributors can expand easily

master page Can be applied to entire site or sub-sections Link global CSS & Script files Establish overall look-n-feel

page layout The insides of an overall page Designers can create multiple, content creators can pick-n-choose

display template (2013) Represents the ‘container’ of a search web part rendering

item template (2013) Controls the rendering of each item in a Display Template

pay attention after launch

summary: why use web best practices People already think your intranet is a website, so make it like one Web usability teaches us we shouldn’t have to teach Good websites grow by learning what your people do and helping them do it better One path to success usually breeds failure

questions?? Virgil Carroll, President High Monkey Consulting Blog: