Corporate intranets apps Taking advantage of a wasted opportunity May 2013 Susan

years of the web (nearly)

In that time, an entire industry around ‘user experience’ has built up

An industry dedicated to making it easy and pleasant to use websites. Especially functional websites, especially when there’s a task to perform.

We take it for granted that we can check out of the shop (and we don’t go back to those sites which fail to provide a foolproof way of completing this simple process*) *Unless we HAVE to (more later)

We take it for granted that we can book our flights, trains, hotels… that we can hire our cars.

And now, increasingly, we do this on the move, at a time that suits us and on devices that are to hand

But in contrast, let’s take a brief look at a few common intranet apps in use at a large corporation only last week…

Expense claims

Annual leave tracking

Room & desk booking

Car booking

Why does this matter?

Staff disengagement It damages your brand – it changes the way your staff feel about you. The message: ‘you don’t care about me’ at best….‘you despise me’ at worst.

Your staff don’t have a choice – they MUST use these sites. To illustrate how this makes them feel – let’s consider a frequent flyer on a budget just about to check out…

How does this make her feel about the company that have put her through this process?

Staff disengagement Bad news for employers. Give them good apps – show them you care.

It wastes time, lots of time, Think about the opportunity cost.

Why are intranet apps so rubbish?

UX is sidelined by IS departments and the ensuing problem becomes insurmountable

Management are not interested “don’t bother me about facilities… I’ve got to sell more widgets”

Corporations are paranoid about security

What could we do?

Barbara is on a train on her way to the office.. she needs a desk when she gets there.

She uses her smartphone app to locate the building

She chooses a desk from those available

She gets to the office and checks in through security. Then she uses her phone to get directions to the desk (note the sex change :D)

But of course you don’t have to go that far

Treat internal web apps in the same way as external web apps

What should we do?

Lessen the focus on the next ‘big’ thing. Innovation isn’t all about new tech, it’s also about new ways of getting things done, of making things better. Wasting money with ‘use once’ apps? Divert budgets into sorting out your intranet functions

To further illustrate this point, here’s a synopsis taken from an event at a digital conference in ‘silicon roundabout’ taking place very soon…

Investigate and play with your relativity to others in online virtual spaces. During this creative-thinking session we will collectively explore issues of identity, communication and team work for the 21st century through immersive telepresence and virtual environments. Imagine a future unbound by the two dimensional head and shoulders of today's video communication, into a world of full bodied haptic feedback, 3d immersive spaces and interaction mediated communication. Avatars are the representations we create of ourselves in virtual worlds. They are central to our modern lifestyles: we work, play, explore and share with one another using these digital bodies. Telepresence can be utilised to enhance and extend future work and play environments and allow the physical live body to be engaged simultaneously with another body at a distance, creating intimacy and build trust as it encourages an evolving expression of yourself and others.” “

Yeah, right.

So how do we get this done? Five steps…

1 Choose a key application

2 Do some cost benefit analysis

3 Engage UX

4 Run it like an external web app project

5 Fight the negativity Inspire and excite Stay focused Thank you :D

Questions?

Corporate intranets apps Taking advantage of a wasted opportunity Susan