Your Intranet: Used Because It's Usable
By Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D., Stacy Wilson, ABC
In the mid-80s desktop publishing gave communicators the opportunity
to use lots of fonts, sizes, visuals and styles. Chaos erupted.
We finally learned that simpler layouts and styles were easier to
read.
The Web is deja vu all over again. We use bells and whistles because
they are there, disregarding their impact on usability. Meanwhile,
communicators fret about how well their web sites are used.
Usage is all about usability. Those who are successful in e-commerce
have already figured this out. But when it comes to Intranets, we
think that if we build it they will come. Getting users to follow
processes and use information on the Web requires change in both
culture and behavior. Make it easier to do on the Web and you'll
realize these changes.
Easy Changes For Fast Improvement
Communicators are cautious about quick changes, but some changes
can be made quickly and serve up fast results. Here are 10 things
to start changing immediately to demonstrate quick usability improvements
to your Intranet.
1. Don't use organizational structure for site structure
- Intranets often are organized to reflect the structure of the
company or department. This is only effective if the user knows
the organization well. Users are trying to accomplish a task or
find information. They may not know or understand the intricacies
of organizational structure.
2. Put standards in place - Site owners want their site or
view to be "cool" and different, but this forces users
to re-learn where things are in every view. Standardizing how pages
and views look and function saves time for users and for those creating
the content.
3. Put the five most important things to 80% of the people up
front - Figure out what 80% of the people need to do 80% of
the time and put that up front, or, in a portal, in tabs or portlets
in the first view.
4. Know your user better than they know you - Users may not
know as much about your group or content area as you do; know who
the users are and develop for them.
5. Re-engineer old content - Users scan and can't read as
much on screen, so be brief, parse content into sections, and use
intuitive links and labels.
6. Use PDF files wisely - PDF files take longer to access
and are less navigable than well-thought-out Web views. PDF files
should only be used when content must be secured from capture or
change, or when printing, rather than online perusal, is expected.
If you use PDF files, use Acrobat's navigation features.
7. Every item has a purpose - Content, text, graphics, animation
or anything that doesn't meet a user's need, shouldn't appear on
a page or in a view.
8. Group items and information in chunks - Research on human
information processing tells us to use groups and chunks -no more
than five groups (portlets or tabs), with five or fewer items in
a group.
9. Test your intranet with intended users - Use real users
(not your team) with the real design and navigation. This can be
as simple as paper copies of a sample view or page.
10. Segment the site for different user segments - It's also
OK to separate content into sections, one for users inside the group
and another for users outside the group.
Ten Usability Killers
If you don't do anything else, at least avoid these 10 approaches
that are sure to frustrate users.
1. Content is not what users expect, need, or want.
2. Too much jargon - terminology or acronyms that are hard to understand.
3. Portlets, menus, navigation bars with too many items.
4. Verbose wording or passive voice in content.
5. Bad color combinations - research shows that red text on a blue
background or blue text on a red background is the hardest to read.
6. Gratuitous graphics - graphics that don't have a purpose, are
large, result in scrolling, and are slow to load.
7. Small text - people don't like to read online and won't if the
text is too small to read.
8. Multiple navigation bars - more than one navigation bar in a
view, with no obvious differentiators.
9. Gratuitous animation - animations that don't have a purpose and
are distracting.
10. Scrolling - Because only 10% of users scroll, vertical scrolling
of more than 4 screens is too much, and NEVER use horizontal scrolling.
Through the Portal Glass
For those transitioning to a portal interface to enable usability,
try to avoid these 10 pitfalls that can sully your intentions.
1. Too many portlets in a user's personal view - sometimes more
information is just too much.
2. Tab or portlet labels that aren't intuitive.
3. User customization tools that are overly complex to use.
4. Tab or portlet labels that are based on organizational structure
rather than user expectations.
5. Using the portal interface more than two layers deep.
6. Too many anchored portlets that can't be moved or removed by
the user.
7. Relying solely on user pro-activity to personalize a view - we
just don't do it.
8. Sending users right into the old Web pages after the portal view.
9. Opening a new window for every new view selected.
10. Abandoning broader navigation on deeper pages so users have
to use the back button.
Whether yours is a tradition HTML Intranet or a newfangled portal,
give your users something easy to use, and they will come. Not because
it looks cool or it has a flaming logo, but because it is a better
way of doing business. If you need a little inspiration, here are
some sites with great usability information and other information
about Intranets that should get you jumping on the bandwagon.
· www.humanfactors.com
· www.useit.com
· www.cio.com/research/intranet
· www.nngroup.com
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.
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