How do I make my intranet something that people actually want to use?

Intranets are one of the web's more quirky platforms, and you may go through your whole life online, never coming across one. This is partly down to their private nature, used exclusively within organisations for their employees and associates to access organisational information they otherwise wouldn’t publish publicly. Intranets came into play in the early 90s, and like most things online, the evolution has been rapid from internal organisational bulletin boards through to advanced, AI-driven platforms that power entire businesses. 

An intranet aims to improve an organisation's efficiency by facilitating a space for important internal information to live. The idea is that a user can quickly hop onto the intranet to find the information they need or to complete a specific functional task related to their needs, such as booking a meal at the canteen, onboarding new employees, room booking and equipment hire for example. However, poorly designed intranets can quickly become a nightmare of complex navigation, dated design and bloated with irrelevant content.

We’re going to delve into some of the pain points, why they happen and how we go about remedying them.

‘I’m having nightmares navigating my intranet!’

This is one of the most common phrases we hear from clients and is one of the biggest drivers in pushing people away from using an intranet. There are a multitude of reasons as to why this happens, and it generally gets worse over time. Sometimes it’s down to poor design and layout; however, more often than not, it’s actually down to how an organisation manages the content and structures the site. Usually, a lack of content moderation from a focused team can lead to people adding pages without approval that are either irrelevant or belong in the wrong places entirely. As the content bloats, the navigation will get messier and messier between pages, eventually creating this complex spider's web of junk that seems impossible to unravel.

‘Our intranet looks a bit dated and disconnected from our identity’

In our experience, an intranet doesn’t typically get the same level of visual servicing and maintenance compared to its more shiny public-facing website sibling. With a public-facing website, there’s a lot more appetite to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ by keeping things fresh through subtle design tweaks here and there. This is understandable given the fact that the site is there for the world to see, and this isn’t the case for intranets. Intranets languish in the background behind a password-protected screen, locking their visual horrors away from the outside world. With a limited number of users viewing the intranet, the emphasis on keeping things fresh is less of a priority, which can lead to tired visuals and a disconnect as a brand evolves.

‘We find it hard to cater for everyone’

Some organisations find it really difficult to tailor intranets to their users and their specific needs and objectives. The two pain points we’ve discussed already can contribute to this thought fairly significantly, and each individual has their own preferences and savviness when it comes to using a product like an intranet. Often, users can be left behind if the design hasn’t been carefully thought out, which leads to a drop off in engagement and the intranet being further cast aside.

Research and looking further afield

At the start of any design project, research is key.  Understanding the client, their business aims and objectives, similar projects in existence within their industry sector – what’s working, what isn’t and what could future requirements look like? Given the private nature of intranets, this stage can be tricky in comparison to a website which is public facing, so our research led us to look at software product concepts with very specific purposes and a high degree of interactivity and content engagement.

As we were researching, a particular presentation style jumped out, which was dashboards. Dashboards aim to be a welcoming home screen for a user when they log in, with all the information on the page relating to their role and interests. This moves away from the traditional intranet style that often mimics a classic website layout and moves towards a more personalised display.

Using icons to support navigation

We come across the use of icons every single day, whether it’s a road sign or an icon on our computer. Most of these icons are baked into our subconscious, and we rarely think about them as we go about our business. These symbols deliver messages and build recognition across cultures, ages and other demographics. 

Within the context of an intranet, icons can play an integral role in assisting users navigate the website by creating visual connections between the icon, navigation and the user. During a recent project, we mapped out the main navigation with the client and matched each menu item with an icon that’s clearly related. As the intranet matures over time, these icons will become more and more familiar to a user, and wherever they see that icon on the site, they will know exactly what it means. This sense of familiarity aims to make intranets easier for users to navigate, and icons also bring a little bit of personality to the page.

Adopting the ‘dashboard’ approach

As we touched on earlier, during our research, we came across the idea of using dashboards as an approach we could use in the development of intranets. The reason for this is due to the flexibility in its layout, navigation remaining in a fixed position and its typically clean and contemporary style.

Traditional intranets influenced by classic websites with the menu at the top and blocky components in the middle can sometimes feel a bit outdated if poorly designed. The dashboard presentation style breaks that trend with the introduction of clean tiles that are different shapes and sizes based on the importance of the content within to help draw the eye. Instead of following a linear block structure, the tiles fit neatly together and adapt based on size.

With the menu remaining fixed at all times down the left-hand side of the page, the user always has quick access to navigate to another section of the site. Each menu item has an active state if you’re within that section of the site. This makes it clear to the user that they’re within a particular section. In a more traditional intranet, the menu may be left at the top of the page, and once a user starts scrolling, they immediately lose sight of where they are and their exit route to another page, which can muddle the experience somewhat.

Making intranets engaging

Intranets can sometimes feel like a rather cold and characterless product to use, with content feeling bland and lifeless, but it doesn’t have to be. To remedy this, we’ve tried to make intranets feel a bit more personalised to the individual by introducing a ‘welcome back’ message on the user's dashboard. It’s a small touch, but it creates a warmer interaction with the intranet.

An intranet's audience varies much like a public-facing website, so it’s worth giving people the power to adjust the experience as they see fit. As we know, intranets can be packed with content, and a lot of it isn’t always relevant to a particular user at one time. Users may only visit a handful of pages, which is why we have introduced the ability for people to select a range of quick links to key pages that they can pin to their dashboard. This enables a user to quickly access their most important pages without having to navigate through the main navigation.

Intranets can be an incredibly powerful online tool to maximise the performance of your team if they’re well thought out and maintained. If you feel that your intranet is looking a bit tired or you're receiving feedback from colleagues that the 'intranet is too hard to use', or ‘I can’t find anything’, then it might be time for us to have a look together. 

We’re a friendly and down-to-earth team based in West Oxfordshire who work together to achieve brilliant outcomes. We’ve been developing digital products and designing tailor-made tech solutions for nearly 16 years.

We work with many of our clients as an ongoing technical partner, but we also offer a consultancy service to solve a specific strategic challenge. Get in touch with us today!