I just got off the phone with the customer ...
Their company recently did an intranet redesign. And something that didn’t seem like a big deal a month ago, is starting to be very pressing right now …
“what should we have on our homepage?”, they asked, “ … other than just a bit of everything“
As you read this, I wonder whether you realize what bothers employees so much about the intranet homepage they look at every day.
The homepage is more than a first impression, which in itself matters a great deal.
Who wants a bad first impression – I’ve never heard of anybody who intends to, but it happens. And you can ruin great intranet design with one bad first impression.
Suppose your users see a homepage that’s cluttered and not useful. In that case, that might be the impression they get about the whole intranet project implementation, even if it’s a well-built intranet.
Creating an intranet homepage that’s both helpful and looks slick is not complicated. But often companies put too much of everything on their homepage with so little value that employees just learn to ignore it.
There is a science to it, and you’re about to find out what it is.
In my career in designing and building company intranets for the past decade and a half, I've seen many successes and failures. These experiences taught me practical lessons on what works and what doesn't, which I'd like to share with you here. If you want to see more examples of leading Sharepoint intranets, see our latest video and PDF below.
So let's begin.…
What is the purpose of the intranet homepage?
The purpose of the intranet homepage is to provide quick access to what employees need the most. This includes: apps and tools employees access most frequently or day-to-day, critical communication, stats and performance at a glance, and easy navigation to get to more resources.
When you open a page and see exactly what you’re looking for, right there in front of you, doesn’t that feel great?
No clicking around or digging.
How do you know what your employees are looking for so you can make your intranet homepage feel like that?
I could give you a simple answer now, but I don’t want to implant a solution into your head.
Instead, let’s discover it together.
Now would you join me in a live experiment we’re gonna do right now?
Think of a time when you suddenly had to work in unfamiliar conditions. Maybe working from client offices, or another office for the first time, or working on another computer, or working from home. It could be recent or from a while ago.
Do you have that memory in front of you? Clear and vivid.
Which of the following was going through your mind at that time?
Are there any of the below?
Did you score at least 7/12?
What probably didn’t come up is: [let’s read the news], [let’s answer polls], [let’s check out sales figures] etc.
What is this experiment trying to tell us?
When I gave you a situation where you had to work in an unfamiliar and uncertain environment, your individual needs (THE BASICS) became a priority. Which usually includes safeguarding your work and anything related to it.
See, it’s all tied to the hierarchy of our digital needs.
Many people don’t realize these needs guide our decision-making in a way that only when the basic needs are met, do we start caring about those higher-level needs.
By the way, here is the list of them all (start from the bottom, basics, and go up).
So, what does this mean for your intranet homepage design?
When you organize your homepage in a way that matches employee needs, basic first, at the top of the page, available with minimal effort, followed by other needs in order of importance, your users will find your homepage more useful and intuitive.
And this, in a nutshell, is why we focus on more than anyone on intranet redesign projects.
What should be on your intranet homepage?
The basics: apps, tools and links that employees need for work every day; Followed by the tools that help us learn about the immediate environment, the department, the company; Then, the tools that will help us benchmark our capabilities and help us improve. Finally, the tools and apps to help us engage with others.
If you can imagine your homepage broken into 4 areas, with specific content in each, here is what those sections would have.
1. THE BASICS: We first care about things that affect us directly:
access to applications to get our work done
links
downloads
requests for help (including how-tos)
any deadlines that affect us directly (upcoming alerts)
alerts and outages that affect us
our working documents (relevant project documents and sites)
any templates that can help us get work done
2. THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT: Next, once we feel safe that the basics are taken care of, we show curiosity in the environment around us:
· department, division and company news, facts, and events
· who is new in the company, what’s their role (staff directory, org chart etc)
· what’s changing in the company (new policies or procedures)
3. THE SKILLS & CAPABILITIES: Now that we have a lay of the land, we start to compare our capabilities and grow our skills:
· stats and metrics (especially those stats that can help us benchmark our capabilities comparing to others)
· opinion polls
· quizzes and tests
4. ENGAGEMENT: Finally, once we’re comfortable in our capabilities, we decide to engage with others (and the company)
· people news
· posting recognitions and shout outs
· posting ideas for improvements or new projects
· organize events
Now that we have a list of all the possible things our employees need, in the right order, let’s see how we can show them on our fresh new homepage.
What makes a good intranet homepage?
Combining all four key elements of employee needs: The tools to meet the basics (access the applications to get their work done), the tools to learn about what’s happening in the company, the tools to help benchmark our skills & capabilities, the means to learn about and engage with others.
Let’s look at the details and examples more closely.
THE BASICS
We first care about things that affect us directly.
A few months ago, one of our customers described their first day of having to work remotely like this:
“a good part of the morning I was scrambling to figure out how to connect to the applications I use every day at the office. Then I started helping others to connect. Then I created a quick how-to summarizing all these steps so others can use it”.
Notice the sequence? First, they cared about their own basic needs - getting adapted to the unusual, new way of working.
So, your homepage must have an area where employees have access to quick links to the applications they use frequently:
access to applications to get our work done
links to the line of business applications
critical downloads (such as VPN tools etc)
phonebook or directory
helpdesk request
key metrics
urgent alerts and outages that have an immediate effect
links to our working documents, projects and sites
Intranet homepage design with quick links, easy search and urgent alerts
2. THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT
Next, once we feel safe that the basics are taken care of, we show curiosity in the environment around us.
At this point, we’re surveying the environment for information. We’re not commenting or sharing anything just yet (this comes later in the [engagement]).
Employees often scan for changes that might be happening and trying to figure out how to prepare. This is where “people news” is essential. We like news about people in the company because we can immediately relate to others being featured and assess whether there is anything we should be on a lookout for.
That’s why news posts that tell stories enjoy some of the highest engagement rates.
For your homepage, here is the content and apps you need:
main news that’s affecting the organization
consider adding this news on a rotating carousel
add a relevant visual (even if it’s an announcement, include a picture of the announcer)
department and company news, facts, and events
what’s changing in the company (people will naturally scan every news for changes so why not make it easier if that’s what the news is about)
who is new in the company
what’s their role – especially if this is a key role in a company
this is where people will look for how it impacts their work, so be sure to include this
Intranet homepage example with news, events, calendar and quick links
3. CAPABILITIES & BENCHMARKS
Before anyone can benchmark their capabilities, they need to be aware of what capabilities are out there. This is why benchmarking our skills comes only after we have assessed our immediate environment in #2 from above.
Now that employees have a lay of the land and their basics are met, they start to benchmark their skills and want to grow new capabilities.
At first, we’re interested in benchmarking our own skills and capabilities against others in the company.
Some of the apps you might like on the homepage for this are:
stats and metrics
especially if those stats are personalized not just general company performance unless that performance very directly affect us (ex. If we own company stock options, then a stock ticker might be of interest)
opinion polls
relevant polls are better (ex. your opinion on office re-opening or new policy implementation)
quizzes and tests
communications skills
attention to detail skills
troubleshooting skills
other more company-specific skills (recognize a safety incident)
industry news, and mentions
this helps employees benchmark their industry awareness (ie. how up to date are they with the industry)
competition news
employees will benchmark internal innovation against the competition translating it into the benchmark of their own skills
Intranet homepage design with polls, KPI dashboard, contact cards, feedback form and news center
4. THE ENGAGEMENT
The engagement involves: sharing knowledge, connecting with others, contributing to improvements and even lead change.
All of these things can only happen when we’re confident in our capabilities. This is why the need to engage sits on the top of the need to benchmark our skills (#3 from above).
Once we’re comfortable in our capabilities, we decide to engage with others (and the company). We feel confident about being featured in the [people news], or be part of the [success story], or be recognized for a project well done.
So what do we need on our homepage to facilitate employee engagement:
feature success stories in people news
allow the ability to post recognitions and give shout outs to employees
enable posting ideas for improvements or new projects
enable commenting
enable employees to organize events
enable employees to volunteer their time as a mentor in a chosen area:
communication
conflict resolution
team building
external events and hackathons
Intranet design with bulletin board, anniversaries, birthdays and recognitions
What is an example of a good intranet homepage?
So how can you package all of the above into a homepage that looks and feels great? Let’s
take a look at the example we built with Origami tools and templates on top of SharePoint Online.
From this example, you might want to emphasize some things over others. For example, have more stats and benchmarks or go easy on the social aspect or the other way around.
More things that matter
Post content on days when employees are most active
"When" matters.
We all build habits, and we feel good when our day flows according to our habits.
On the other hand, we're frustrated when things don't flow as we expected.
By posting content consistently on certain days will build habits in your employees to look for fresh new content.
Chunk your content into digestible pieces
How often do you come across a wall of text? And when you do, how willing are you to read it?
You can help your employees understand what's in the post, or a policy or a news update, if you break it up.
Organize your content into short paragraphs with headings and lists. Make use of white space. If you follow this structure, it will improve your intranet user experience, and your users will appreciate it.
Keep intranet navigation simple and to the point
You can’t include every single piece of content on the homepage. Nor should you try!
Instead, include just enough content for employees to look further if they want to.
Good navigation goes beyond links at the top of the page; it also includes navigation within applications on your homepage.
In the example homepage above, you see a link to [More Apps] among quick links. Employees will find it much easier to find the app that’s not listed if the link to more apps is right there with the rest of them.
Here is where you can find out more about improving your intranet navigation.
And so …
Now, you have the most comprehensive research out there about how to build one kick-ass intranet homepage! The one that delivers what users need, goes beyond the guesswork, and straight to the point.
It’s one of the principles we follow at Origami to create highly effective intranets.
If someone in your network might be stuck with their intranet project, why not share this with them? They might appreciate it more than you think.
Did you like templates in this post? Those are part of Origami, our pre-built intranet solution.
Get in touch to see a demo. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to build your own portal like this.
Yaroslav Pentsarskyy is a Digital Workplace Advisor at Origami. He has been awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for 8 years in a row and has authored and published 4 intranet books.
Yaroslav is also a frequent presenter at industry conferences and events, such as the Microsoft SharePoint Conference and Microsoft Ignite.