Creating
quality intranet content
THERE ARE MANY
excellent usability guides on the World Wide Web. Fortunately they agree on more points
than they disagree and their advice is typically both well-researched and down to earth.
Having conducted a review of these guides, I was able to draw up my own list of web page
design rules that apply well to intranets and are accessible to ordinary
(non-professional) designers. Here they are then, my seven goals for intranet document
design:Creating content that counts
Content is king. Of all the goals, content comes first, because
without it, the rest are academic. 'Content that counts' is content that meets an
identified audience need. It's accurate, up-to-date, relevant and on time. It's pitched at
the right level and uses the right language for your audience. It contains all the
necessary information, but only as much as is absolutely necessary.
On-line publishers need to know:
- why it's important for information to have a single identified
owner
- what you need to know about the potential audiences for your
content
- what it means to provide the right information at the right
time
- how to judge the amount of information to include
- why it's important to maintain a dialogue with your audience
Making your pages easy to find
However good your content, your efforts will have been entirely
in vain if your audience can not find it. It may seem easy to bring readers and documents
together, but on screen all content is invisible until you find it - unlike the more
obvious physical presence of paper.
On-line publishers need to know:
- how to organise your content into meaningful sections
- how to ensure your content is found by search engines
- the importance of titling and tagging your web pages properly
- the importance of getting listed in indexes and directories
- the benefits from 'reciprocal linking' with other sites
Getting the reader’s attention
You've got great content. The user has even found your page
amongst all the available options on your intranet. What are your chances of holding the
user long enough to read what you've got to say? Not great, if you can't grab their
attention.
On-line publishers need to know:
- the dangers of frustrating the user with long delays and how
to avoid them
- why simplicity and consistency do not lead to boring pages
- the many ways of creating contrast to grab attention
- the importance of making the user aware of what's new or
changed
- why the first paragraph of every page is so important
Keeping the reader orientated
Once you've got your reader's attention, you need to maintain it
as they try to find the information they need. It is much easier on screen than it is on
paper for a reader to become lost or disorientated. Fortunately, with good design these
problems can be avoided.
On-line publishers need to know:
- why it's important not to bury your information in too deep a
hierarchy of menus
- identifying the who, what, where and when of your web pages
- the negative effect that scrolling has on the reader and how
to get around it
- why and how to obtain consistency in your design
- how design features can help to clarify differences in
function and meaning
Ensuring readability
We know that users find it slower to read off screen than off
paper. For that reason we need to do all we can to make our web pages as readable as
possible. Often designs that work well on paper are applied to the screen without
consideration for the obvious differences. Worse, many web pages employ designs that would
not work on any medium.
On-line publishers need to know:
- why it's important to constrain the width of lines of text
- how to select the right fonts for use on-screen
- how colour affects legibility
- how to size text correctly
- ways to add emphasis to text without affecting readability
Making your pages easy to skim
Readers skim web pages rather than reading them word-for-word.
Your job is not to work against this phenomenon but to make it easier. With a commercial
web site, it is in your interest to hold the user at your site long enough to sell them
something. On an intranet, you have a different goal: to provide the user with the
information they want as quickly as possible. And to do this, the user must be able to
move through your material easily.
On-line publishers need to know:
- how to let the user know what to expect before they get there
- the importance of summaries
- how and why to chunk information
- how to make your point early
- why lists work better than prose
Providing connectivity
Connections create the web. Without connections, the spider
would have nowhere to travel. With a variety of links, you can provide the user with all
the advantages of on-screen reading.
On-line publishers need to know:
- how to structure long web pages
- how to provide navigation facilities within long pages
- how to provide links within a sequence of pages
- how to provide links between different levels within your site
- how and where to provide links to further information
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