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Features
I wonder how different the Web would be if all Internet users were required to attend one-hour training sessions on Web site surfing before firing up their browsers for the first time. Would Web sites be designed differently? Would they be more complex, functionality rich, and design immersive? Would usage be higher? In contrast, in the intranet domain we can require our users to read guides, view Web-based seminars, or even attend instructor-led training sessions (ILT) before they are given access to the company intranets. Training has become more important as intranets evolve to include new content, collaboration, and office productivity applications.
Informative is a marketing software company with offices in countries spread across the globe. Tom is a strategy consultant for the firm based in California, and Ken is a salesman working in the London office. Normally they don’t work together because they are in different departments halfway around the world. But Informative has a secret weapon—its intranet is a wiki. Wiki technology enables the rapid response participation of employees from disparate business groups and high-quality intranet content. While many intranets are operated through the established Web site model—where changes are funneled through content and technology people—wikis allow for a horizontal approach that can result in much greater participation and usage.
Columns
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.
Just because your intranet has a huge volume of content, it doesn’t mean you have to spend all your time maintaining it. When new intranet managers are appointed, they are generally confronted with an intranet that has grown organically over many years. Consisting of thousands (or tens of thousands) of pages, many intranet sub-sites and applications, these intranets are daunting for even the most experienced intranet manager.
Read_Me_File
Reviewed this issue: The Records Management Report, Portals and KM, Staff Directories: Designing and Implementing an Effective Online Staff Directory
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