Applying Brand To An Intranet Without Killing Usability
By Stacy Wilson, ABC, Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.
Brand has become an integral part of the employee communicator's
role as organizations recognize the importance of employee behaviors
in building brand. When it comes time to integrate brand elements
into the intranet or portal, good usability practices and testing
can guide that integration, ensuring desired employee behaviors.
The Do's and Don'ts of Brand Integration
When the brand team brings you the new logo, or that new red bar
that has to be in "everything," consider how incorporating
those new elements might affect usability. Here are 14 basics to
consider.
Do
1. Use the organization's logo in a manner that reinforces recognition
without dominating a view - users expect the logo to be in the top
left of the screen
2. Use colors that are consistent and complementary with the corporate
colors
3. Use colors that reflect or generate the desired emotion according
to the brand vision
4. Keep it simple - too much complexity may create the right impression
in print, but it can destroy usability on the Web
5. Use rules and lines sparingly, keeping them from intersecting
with content or navigational items
6. Standardize, document and communicate how brand elements should
be used for developers in field or departmental groups
7. Test how well brand attributes (friendly and warm, high tech
and modern) are conveyed in the interface
Don't
1. Use a brand color in a way that might damage usability (such
as yellow for text)
2. Use specialized fonts that require the use of graphics to display
text
3. Use icons of brand elements that are hard to interpret
4. Animate the logo (animation can be annoying and distracting)
or use very large logos or other brand graphics - forcing more scrolling
5. Reverse text from colors that don't offer enough on-screen contrast
6. Be cute or use humor unless you've tested it thoroughly - funny
is relative on the computer screen where you have no body language
or expression to go with it
7. Forget cultural and languages differences. Graphics, for example,
have different meanings and connotations in different cultures.
Intranets that serve multi-cultural audiences require strategic
thinking.
Don't Forget About The Words
As if any good communicator would forget the words. But, often we
focus on look and feel, ignoring how important the language is to
brand building. Here are some steps you can take to ensure your
brand is properly reflected in your intranet or portal content.
· Don't sacrifice brand tone for brevity - Because the Web
demands brevity, it's easy to switch to stilted, robotic sounding
language, but don't sacrifice your brand's sound
· Define terminology and acronyms - Even employees need a
resource for those nagging terms and acronyms that have become rampant
in so many industries (pop-up and roll-over definitions work great)
· Make active voice part of your brand standard - active
Active voice is important in print and, because of limited readability
online, even more important on the Web
· Avoid directive language that orders a user to do the obvious
(such as "click here") - being directive probably isn't
part of your brand sound
· Avoid unintuitive labels and links - they They may be tied
to brand words, but they might not be self-evident to the user
Testing Ensures Success
Those with training in human factors should be able to avoid the
most obvious problems between branding decisions and usability.
But even people with extensive training in interface design and
usability, can't always prevent all problems in the interaction
between brand and usability. The only way to ensure the end result
meets both branding and usability requirements is to conduct usability
testing early, often, and iteratively with actual, representative
users.
Testing needn't be complicated, with fancy gizmos and sophisticated
labs. Individual testing and interview sessions that allow the user
to "use" paper or electronic mock-ups of the intranet
pages or portal views will suffice. In a session designed for usability
feedback, you observe the users performing a task without interruption.
And then afterwards you have an opportunity to question them, probe,
and get further feedback. The questions you ask make up what is
perhaps the most important part of the data gathering. You want
to learn what worked, what didn't and why.
It's best to do testing early in the development phase, again before
finalizing and launching, and then periodically after launch as
you add or change elements. Ideally, usability testing becomes part
of your ongoing effort to refine both the intranet or portal itself
and the way the brand is reflected online.
Proper brand integration can make your intranet or portal a powerful
tool in building your brand. Your intranet or portal should reflect
your brand in look, in sound and in functionality. The intranet
or portal can even drive the specific behaviors you require from
employees for brand success. Know and understand those required
behaviors and direct your internal web investment toward making
them happen.
Stacy Wilson,
ABC is president of Eloquor
Consulting in Colorado. She delivers
consulting services focused on internal communication and organizational
development, currently working with clients to develop systems,
strategy
and processes to support employee portals.
Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.
is chief of technical staff at Human
Factors
International and has a doctorate in Psychology from Pennsylvania
State University.
She uses her 25 years of expertise in psychology to design technology
products,
including web sites and applications, for the Fortune 500.
|
