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Articles by Howard McQueen
As one might expect, user-centered design (UCD) principles can shift a website toward a user-centered focus. In my work, I have also effectively adapted a mix of UCD principals—personas, in particular—to support a major government intranet portal program.
Inserting usability practices dramatically improves the quality of the outcomes of development projects. Usability helps focus and prioritize tasks users need to accomplish. Usability identifies and records user frustration and failure to complete a task. Usability is not exclusively a negative feedback mechanism as it also captures user satisfaction. I have developed four usability steps I now rely on when developing intranet applications, portal interfaces, and other technology projects.
Persona development—the creation of stand-in archetypes to represent the behaviors of key customers—is emerging as one of the most effective methods to prioritize and profile key customer segments. Persona development enables stakeholders to build, communicate, and share a common, evidence-based understanding of customers. This allows teams to design, build, and sustain better information products like Web sites, enewsletters, and search interfaces. Here is an overview of the development methodology that the Persona Alliance (myself, Martin White, and Elizabeth Randolph) have evolved over the past 18 months.
Federal government intranets and portals have devolved into a patchwork of roll-your-own platforms. At one U.S. agency, the CIO’s office has initiated a portal program in an attempt to straighten things out. What is unique about this agency’s approach is that business units—rather than the IT department—are being given the opportunity to set the portal standards.
One of the most baffling aspects of intranets seems to be their low levels of usage. But how do you go about determining demand for the intranet? Demand-driven intranet development should not be a new concept. Here are some methods to identify demand and begin to regain the trust and respect of the end-user community.
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