Last July, we posted a blog called Intranet Design 101 which offered four useful tips on how to improve your intranets functionality, design and navigation.  Here are some of the ways that you can be creative with our turnkey, out of the box intranet software:

Tip #1 – Make use of new features

When you buy Intranet Connections software, you have a fleet of developers providing new features and functionality to your intranet on a regular basis to take advantage of this!

Tip #2 – Use a clean, fresh design

When you first go live with your intranet, sometimes it’s good to have a bold design theme, lots of graphics and a few boxes on the home page for social-fun content. This helps to drum up interest and attract employees to the new intranet.

Tip #3 – Rethink your navigation

Think Labels.  A menu item called “General Information” does what exactly for employees?  Now a menu item labeled “Employee Info, Events & Resources” is something I would click on expecting to find value for me, the employee.

PS: if your navigation is NOT at the top of the homepage real estate, move it on up. Navigation first!

Tip #4 – Give users some power

Get your employees involved – you might be surprised at their level of responsibility and ability to share valuable information.  For example: Suggestion Box, Discussion Forum, News, Blogs and Knowledge Center are collaboration tools that engage your employees.

We recently redesigned the Utah Community Credit Union and Northern Savings intranets as a thank you for participating in a recent case study. These intranets are used as the central portal for all company information by their employees.  Simplifying the navigation and design of the site can increase productivity because it takes users less time to find what they are looking for. Check out the design revisions we completed using our Intranet Connections software:

Utah Community Credit Union Intranet before and after:

• To modernize the home page, we removed the blue background and replaced it with simple white
• Organized the content of the site by adding a centered top menu header which houses the sites content in drop down’s
• The new accent colors for the site were pulled from the corporate logo and website. This gives the  intranet a look that is cohesive with their company website

Northern Savings Intranet before and after:

• When we spoke to Christine Komadina at Northern Savings, she expressed that their intranet theme had not changed since they implemented their intranet in 2006 and she felt like their site was ready for a facelift
• In the original site, there was a large amount of content on the home page and throughout the site. In order to cut back on scrolling and word clutter, we added a left aligned menu header with drop down’s to the home page
• We pulled colors and images from the Northern Savings corporate website, which gave it a cheerful and clean look

Using our Intranet Connections software, we can show clients what their intranet would look like with corporate branding incorporated on their site. We recently branded intranets for BleuBlancRouge and Sonoma Valley Hospital, and here are the results:

BleuBlancRouge Intranet:

• We used  BleuBlancRouge’s corporate webpage as a template for their intranet theme
• We incorporated their corporate logo and branding on the intranet and added bright fuchsia to contrast with the white background
• Since this is an advertising and design company, we incorporated photos  from their advertising campaigns on the intranet homepage

Sonoma Valley Hospital Intranet:

• We really loved their website’s autumn colors and photos, so we used them throughout the Sonoma Valley intranet
• The background of the intranet is white to contrast with the dark menu header, this allows the important menu information to be highlighted and easily searchable

Do you have an award-winning intranet? The Neilson Norman Group is looking for the World’s 10 Best Intranets, and it could be yours!