Best Practices in Portal Design for Intranets and Internet Portals

From: http://www.technologyexecutivesclub.com/Articles/infrastructure/portaldesign.php

By Marc S. Fussell, a Technical Specialist and Portal Designer with PSC Group, LLC

Intranets and more importantly Internal Portals are no longer a feature of a well organized company but instead a necessity for nearly all businesses. Whether small, medium, or large, companies need means to communicate information to employees, organizing information, make information available outside of the company's network, and share goals and milestones. Intranets and Internal Portals can facilitate collaboration and communication, aid in employee's self-management, and organize company information. However, a poorly designed Intranet or Internal Portal can be counter-productive and inefficient for the employees to use. A poorly designed Intranet or Internal Portal can cost company money in lost time, money, and efforts by not being effective in achieving the goals of the Intranet or Internal Portal.

This white paper will offer guidelines and recommendations around the overall design and content considerations when developing a company Intranet or Internal Portal. The data offered herein is a summary of tested and proven design methods, other industry recognized documents regarding Intranet and Internal Portal best practices, lessons learned from usability studies, guidelines given during usability seminars, and the collective experience of the author. This document can help to ensure the success of your next Intranet or Internal Portal.

Remember Two Things: KISS and Content
There are two concepts, which are repeated throughout this document, that you need to always remember and consider when designing your next Intranet or Internal Portal. Although these concepts are not repeated verbatim, they will be the underlying foundation for the many design and content considerations presented throughout this document. Both of these concepts are very important yet very simple: (i) Keep it Simple, Stupid, and (ii) Words Before Looks.

Most everyone has heard the phrase ¡°Keep it Simple, Stupid¡± , or the KISS Principle. This pr inciple is very important when designing your new Intranet or Internal Portal application; the simpler the better. Your audience is not the Internet and you are not hoping to gain traffic from the ¡°Wow-Factor¡± of your Intranet or Internal Portal. At th e same time, this should not be a marketing website whereby you are hoping to increase sales for your company. You are designing a medium of communicating information to your employees. As you design your Intranet or Internal Portal always keep the design simple.

The second concept of ¡°Words before Looks¡± , or Content, applies to the KISS Principle. Again, you are designing an Intranet or Internal Portal to communicate information; thus, the information being communicated should be the primary focus. As you design your Intranet or Internal Portal, always remember that the content is the reason the employees are going to access the Intranet or Internal Portal. You should focus on how the content is presented during your design. Ensure a clean appearance which is easy on the eyes. The following sections will outline guidelines and best practices of an Intranet or Internal Portal design in greater detail. While reading the following sections, keep the above two concepts in mind: KISS and Content.

Good Looks are Simple: Graphic Design Guidelines
While designing your Intranet or Internal Portal there are multiple best practices that should be followed. Many of the items in this list are very similar and possibly related; however, they are all spelled out to minimize uncertainty. There is no order of precedence as all are important to keep in mind while designing your new Intranet or Internal Portal. Again, many of these will apply back to our principles on KISS and Content.

Determine your target audience's screen size . In today's environments many companies are beginning to utilize screen sizes other than 800x600. With the popularity of flat-panel displays, in many instances the display is set by default to a size other than 800x600. If the Intranet or Internal Portal you will be designing will be made available outside of your company then you must adhere to 800x600. However, if this is an internal only Intranet or Internal Portal, and you can confirm that the company standard screen resolution is larger, then you should target the resolution being used by your company's I.T. department.

Limit the use of graphics . Outside of minimal use in the header, there is not much need for many graphics within an Intranet or Internal Portal. Acceptable uses of graphics include: within the header, for pictures of the managing staff on the appropriate page, minimal use of small icons, or if the image is being discussed within the content. Again, this is not a marketing website; limit the company marketing and give the users the data they need by skipping the unnecessary design elements. Never lose site that your employees are going to visit this to read information. It is also worth mentioning that graphics should never be used for text.

Minimize ¡°Wasted-Space¡± or space used in non-content areas . Screen real estate is your friend and your enemy. It is a tight balancing act to use the real estate wisely while not cluttering the layout, at the same time offering all of the data required while minimizing scrolling. It is very important to not have wasted-space in your design. Large margins, not utilizing a horizontally-elastic style, unnecessary large spacing between elements, and overly large headers and footers are all examples of wasted-space.

Keep the design consistent across all pages . One of the most common flaws on Intranets and Internal Portal is inconsistent look-and-feel across all pages and sections. If your company has many departments it is very important to ensure the look-and-feel of the Intranet or Internal Portal is consistent across all departments. The best practice is to have one individual or group manage and maintain the overall look-and-feel and simply allow the departments to own their content. More directly put, departments can own their content but a governing group should own the design.

Go easy on the colors . Colors are good; they can stimulate emotions, excitement, and be comforting; they can make a website look good. However, too much color on your Intranet or Internal Portal or colors that are too loud will distract from the content. Again, the employees are visiting for the content. If the overall design, graphics, or colors stand out over the content then you may want to consider muting your colors.

Do not use same design for Internet and Intranet/Portal . The Internet website should have a separate purpose. It may be selling products, providing software downloads, giving investor information, and even dispensing content. Your Intranet or Internal Portal has only one purpose - disseminating information to employees and possibly certain external customers. Intranets should never have the same appearance as the Internet website. Employees should always be able to tell if they're on the public website or the private Intranet by simply looking at the page.

No Splash, Flash, Frames, Animation, or unnecessary design elements . The last element in the series is the key, ¡°Unnecessary Design Elements¡± . Splash, flash, and frames are all unnecessary design elements for an Intranet or Internal Portal.

Minimize Header and Footer areas . The navigational structure of your Intranet or Internal Portal will affect the overall size of the header; however, as a rule of thumb keep the overall height of the header and footer as minimal as possible. The employees are not visiting to see the awesome design capabilities of the graphical artists. Albeit brand imaging for your company within the header is important, target a header width no greater than 100 pixels, with even less for the footer.

Avoid background images and colors . Both of these are distractions from the intent of the Intranet or Internal Portal. Background images and background colors will create design noise that will impair usability by making the content difficult to read.

Clean Lines . Take a page out of the interior design guides for simplicity; keep the overall design smooth and stream-lined. There is no need to make the design ornate or intricate. Again, extra angles, shapes, design patterns, and lines will distract from the content; this goes back to our ¡°Words before Looks¡± .

Optional: Include a CSS for Mobile Devices . With today's on-the-go lifestyles and businesses and the number of employees carrying mobile devices, if your company is one of such, consider creating a style sheet for mobile devices. In many instances you can make modifications to nicely display your company's Intranet or Internal Portal on a mobile device with minimal effort. This is not a requirement for a well designed Intranet or Internal Portal; however, it is slowly becoming a best practice for larger companies.

Lost In the Woods: Navigational Considerations
Navigation is a large part of the success of your company's Intranet or Internal Portal. Ensuring the information is easy to locate and the employees do not get lost in a tangled web of navigation and page hierarchies will be beneficial. To that, many Intranets or Internal Portals will need to consider between top navigation and left-hand navigation, or in some instances both. The question is when to use what?

As a simple rule of thumb, determine how many pages will be utilized on your company's Intranet or Internal Portal and consider how many potential layers down each page will need. For a flat navigational structure with few pages (12 or under), a single or double top navigation may be sufficient. At the same time, if you have fewer pages (7 or under) and each page only has 2-6 sub-pages, consider a top navigation with a secondary navigation directly below the top-level navigation.

Left navigation is generally a waste of real estate unless absolutely needed due to the magnitude of pages. However, if your company is such that will need 100a€?s of web pages within their Intranet or Internal Portal, then you must consider having a primary and secondary top navigation with a tertiary navigation on the left hand side. However, this need will also facilitate the requirement of bread crumbs, as you will always want to ensure the employee understands their whereabouts within the Intranet or Internal Portal at all times.

The Killer App: Keep Employees Coming Back
A very important measurement of a successful Intranet or Internal Portal is how much it is used by the employees. Much of the value will come from making your Intranet or Internal Portal a communication tool that all employees check every day. Thus, it is important to design your Intranet or Internal Portal with the intent of drawing your employees back frequently.

This is often challenging, especially if the existing Intranet is not well received by employees. One feature that will assist in employees embracing the Intranet or Internal Portal is to identify your Killer App. Your Killer App is the one that is so useful that it alone will voluntarily and frequently keep your employees returning. Identify the Killer App for your company and ensure that application is designed well, written well, and made predominant on the Intranet or Internal Portal.

The Big Four: Staples for Success
There are four staples for an Intranet or Internal Portal that will aid in the success; I have labeled these the Big Four. These are: Simple Navigation, Employee Directory, Content Search, and Company News. All company Intranets or Internal Portals should include these.

Simple Navigation is very important to ensure employees can quickly find what they desire as previously discussed. If your employee cannot visit the Intranet or Internal Portal and quickly locate the information for which they are searching, they will not find use in the Intranet or Internal Portal. Give your navigation decisions good thought and ensure a clean, consistent, and understandable navigational structure.

The Employee Directory should obviously be pertinent to your company's size and geographical layout. At minimum the company directory should include email address and telephone number. The company directory should also be searchable by first and last name.

Content Search is reflected in the simple navigation; again, an employee must have means by which to locate their desired information quickly and easily. There are many ways to incorporate a robust search facility into your Intranet or Internal Portal. Find the solution that best fits into your solution and ensure the results are accurate and thorough.

Company News is a simple concept that is often overlooked or not maintained. A good Intranet or Internal Portal will dedicate an area to company news and ensure that area is updated frequently and regularly. As with the entire Intranet or Internal Portal, if the Company news becomes stale or is not updated regularly the employees will perceive that the Intranet or Internal Portal is not important to the company and they will stop using it.

Keep Your New Portal Up to Date
Once you have invested the time, effort, and money to design and develop an Intranet or Internal Portal do not let it go stale, update it regularly and frequently. A company can increase the perception of the importance of their Intranet or Internal Portal by simply ensuring the content is fresh. Once you roll-out your new Intranet or Internal Portal, continual fresh content will show the company's commitment to the solution. If the employees gain the perception that the company is committed then they will be more apt to visit in hopes of finding the answers they desire.

Final Words
As has been stated, employees visit Intranets and Internal Portals to read information and gather information about the company. The more information made available, the better organized that information, and the frequency of updates will contribute to the success of your Intranet or Internal Portal. Ensure the information is easy to obtain through simple navigation so the employee can find what they want. Lastly, once they are able to locate the information, you must also ensure you present the information in the most readable format possible .