Part of the Intranet Usability Guidelines Series

The employee directory is the most important and most used feature on most intranets. Many people use this every day, sometimes several times a day to find information about colleagues and groups. Ensure that people can find the right resources, and do so quickly and easily.

Thorough descriptions about the teams and locations at the organization, plus organizational charts, help to build a community, and helps people do their job with a less provincial outlook. Instead they understand a little more of the company's big picture.

(Searching the employee directory is covered in Searching the Intranet.)

This 187-page report contains 73 design recommendations based on our usability research. Discussions and 157 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Benefits

• Increase the use of the intranet for tasks related to finding information about teams or projects
• Create robust employee profiles that enhance knowledge sharing and build community
• Checklist of 73 recommendations on presenting company information

Topics

• Information about teams, departments, and projects
• New employees
• Promotions
• Calendars and events
• Employee directory
• Employee profiles
• Updating and customizing employee profiles
• Organizational charts
• Employee pictures in organizational charts
• General company information
• Information about management
• Leadership communication
• Information about various offices

Download report excerpt (2MB PDF)

Research Method

The information in these reports is based on three separate rounds of user research with company employees as participants. We used two different research methods:

• One-on-one usability testing
• Field studies, during which we observed employees as they went about their normal work

In total, 176 people tested 42 intranets. The studies took place in the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, United Arab Emirates, and China (Hong Kong).