Summary

The ten winning intranets are:

• Allianz Australia Insurance, Australia
• ALTANA Pharma AG, Germany
• Bank of Ireland Group, Ireland
• Capital One, USA
• IBM, USA
• Merrill Lynch, USA
• METRO Group, Germany
• O₂, UK
• Staples, USA
• Vodafone Group, UK

These intranets represent big companies with large amounts of documents and mission-critical applications such as sales force support. But most of the lessons from these winning designs apply to smaller companies as well.

The bulk of the report consists of detailed case studies of each of the ten winning intranet designs, including discussions of the main problems they faced, how these problems were overcome in the redesign process, and how the new design compared with the previous design.

> Read Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: main trends in this design annual
> 2006 Intranet Design Awards: Learn more about the winning teams

Best Practices

• Encouraging employees to self-publish content
• Training intranet publishers
• Keeping the intranet up-to-date
• Supporting factory-floor employees
• Supporting branch-office and in-store users
• Onboarding of new employees
• Consistent navigation
• Intranet favorites / Quick Access lists
• Task-based information architecture (IA)
• Multilingual intranets; supporting international employees
• Mobile intranet access
• Multimedia and video on intranets
• Collaboration tools and discussion boards
• E-learning features on intranets
• Internal weblogs
• Intranet search
• Development process for intranet redesigns
• Staffing of intranet teams; where they report in the organization
• Updating and maintaining standards and guidelines for intranet design
• Intranet branding
• Advertising and promoting intranet features
• Polls
• Staff directory and employee profile pages

Table of Contents

287 page report with 193 screenshots

1. Executive Summary
   • Continuing Trends
   • Technology Diversity
   • Multimedia
   • Web Trends on Intranets
   • Mobile Access
   • Training and E-Learning
   • ROI and Expected Use
   • Usability Methodology and Design Process
   • Intranet Branding
2. Overview of the Winners
3. Common Themes among the Winners
   • Access to the Public Website’s Content
   • Training for Editors/Content Providers
   • Intranet Design Standards
   • Sections for New Employees
   • One-Stop Services Page
   • Advertising Intranet Features
   • Intranet "Favorites"
   • Mobility
   • Stock Quotes
   • Homepage Polls
4. Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd.
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Content Management
   • Technology
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Basic intranet Features
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Background
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
5. ALTANA Pharma AG
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Content Management
   • Technology
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Background
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
6. Bank of Ireland Group
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Content Management
   • Technology
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Background
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons learned
7. Capital One
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Content Management
   • Technology
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Background
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
8. IBM Corporation
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Content Management
   • Technology
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Background
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
9. Merrill Lynch
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Content Management
   • Technology
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Background
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
10. METRO Group
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Content Management
    • Technology
    • Goals
    • Basic Intranet Features
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Background
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
    • Timeline
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
11. O₂ (UK) Limited
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Content Management
    • Technology
    • Goals and Constraints
    • Basic Intranet Features
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Background
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
    • Timeline
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
12. Staples
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Content Management
    • Technology
    • Goals and Constraints
    • Basic Intranet Features
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Background
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
    • Timeline
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
13. Vodafone Group plc
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Content Management
    • Technology
    • Goals and Constraints
    • Basic Intranet Features
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Background
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
    • Timeline
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
14. Recommendations for the Intranet Design Process
    • Watch People Work
    • Conduct Usability Evaluations
    • Help Content Contributors Succeed
    • Consider Accessibility
    • Measure ROI
15. Intranets Not Selected: Common Issues
16. Selection Criteria and Process
    • Initial Design Reviews And Numeric Rankings
    • Follow-Up Questions With Top Tier (When Necessary)
    • Design Sorting And Thorough Design Review
    • Follow-Up Interviews With Top Ten

How Can We Sell This Report So Cheaply?

Despite investing half a year's effort and the work of several of the world's most experienced usability professionals in the project, we can sell the report at a dramatically lower price than other companies who put much less work into their reports, because we distribute it over the Web, with a much leaner cost structure than having an army of salespeople to schmooze you.

Our only plea is that you help us continue publishing low-price reports by buying a site license if you have colleagues who will read the report. If you only need it for yourself, then that's obviously what the single-user license is for. If somebody "gives" you a copy, then please buy a download anyway to keep prices down in the future.

Who Should Read This Report?

Sector-Specific Intranets:
> Financial Services
> Technology Companies
> Manufacturing Industry
> Retail Sector
> Knowledge-Intensive
> Government Agencies

"Enterprise 2.0"
Social Software on Intranets: A Report From the Front Lines of Enterprise Community, Collaboration, and Social Networking Projects.

Intranet Portals
Report from the trenches.

Intranet Information Architecture (IA)
Analysis of 56 companies' IA.

User Research and Intranet Design Guidelines
For this series of 10 reports, we tested 27 intranets with real employees from each company to find out what worked and didn't work across a broad set of intranet designs.

• Check
• Bank transfer
• Purchase orders
• Faxed or mailed credit cards

We can also send you a paper invoice if your company requires that.

> in-house seminar for your intranet team
> public tutorial at our next usability conference

We can conduct a usability review of your intranet.