Summary

The 10 winning intranets are:

• Bank of America, United States
• Bankinter S.A., Spain
• Barnes & Noble, United States
• British Airways, United Kingdom
• Campbell Soup Company, United States
• Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, United States
• IKEA North America Service, LLC, United States
• Ministry of Transport, New Zealand
• New South Wales, Department of Primary Industries, Australia
• SAP AG, Germany

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
> See sample chapter as thumbnails
> 2008 Intranet Design Awards: Learn more about the winning teams

Best Practices

• Company and industry news
• Integrating internal and external information sources
• Editorial control of the intranet homepage
• Keeping the intranet up-to-date
• Supporting factory-floor employees
• Onboarding of new employees
• Consistent navigation
• Multilingual intranets; supporting international employees
• Multimedia and video on intranets
• Data visualization
• Community
• Collaboration tools and discussion boards
• Employee self service
• Special intranet tools and areas for high-level executives
• Internal weblogs
• Intranet search
• Development process for intranet redesigns
• Creating a unified intranet after a merger of two or more organizations
• Staffing of intranet teams; where they report in the organization
• Updating and maintaining standards and guidelines for intranet design
• Intranet branding
• Promoting new intranet features
• Polls
• Stock quotes
• Staff directory and employee profile pages
• Corporate calendars
• Personalization
• Alerts
• Working with external design agencies; coordinating multiple agencies

Table of Contents

362 page report with 212 screenshots

1. Executive Summary
   • Company News Increasing Quality and Polish
   • Productivity Focus
   • Knowledge Management
   • Diverse Technology Platforms
   • Intranet Branding Gets a Lighter Touch
   • Intranet Trends
   • ROI for Intranet Usability
2. Overview of the Winners
   • Six Countries
   • Seven Industries
   • Large and Small Winning Organizations
   • Larger Teams (Though Still Relatively Small Given the Work They Do)
   • Increased In-House Design
   • Tap the Winning Designers' Advice
3. Common Themes among the Winners
   • More Personalization Than Ever
   • Cleaning Up The Mess: Reconciling Information Sources
   • A Single Page as "One Stop Shop"
   • Helping Employees to Help Themselves
   • Supporting the Core Business
   • Finding Subject matter Experts
   • Themes from Past years that Repeat This Year
4. Bank of America
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Technology
   • Content Management
     • CMS Technology
     • Managing the Data
     • Compliance
   • Intranet Team
     • Team Members
     • Intranet Oversight and Staffing
     • Site Evolution
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Features
     • Tools for Collaboration
     • Search
     • Usability Methods Phase I: Release 4.0 to Release 5.0
     • Card Sort Studies
     • User Testing
     • Usability Methods Phase II: Release 5.0 to Release 6.0 (current site)
   • Results
     • Follow-Up Activities
     • Surprise Findings
   • Lessons Learned
5. Bankinter S.A.
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Technology
     • Content management
     • CMS Technology
     • Content Maintenance
     • CMS Standards
   • Intranet Team
   • Timeline
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Basic Intranet Features
     • Information Center
     • Web de Personas: HR Hub
     • Other popular sections
     • Collaboration Tools
     • Search
   • Usability Activities
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
6. Barnes & Noble
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Technology
     • Content Management System
     • CMS Technology
     • Content Ownership
     • Standards, Templates, and Training
     • Supporting Contributors
   • Intranet Team
     • Team Roles
     • Site Ownership
   • Budget
   • Goals and Constraints
     • Goal: The Need for Speed
     • Goal: Know What Not to Put on the Site
     • Constraint: Work Environment
     • Other Constraints
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Other Key Features
     • Community Building
     • Search
     • Data Visualization
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
   • Learning from Past Mistakes
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • User Feedback
   • Lessons Learned
7. British Airways
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Technology
   • Content Management System
   • Intranet Team
   • Background
     • Working with Agencies
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Users
     • The People's Intranet
   • User Tasks
   • Basic Intranet Features
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
     • Redesign Priorities
     • Creating a Single Entry Point
     • Timeline
   • Results
     • Key Successes
     • Surprises
   • Lessons Learned
8. Campbell Soup Company
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Technology
   • Content Management
     • Content Authors Drive the Technology Requirements
     • Content Owners
   • Intranet Team
   • Background
     • The Redesign: Working With Agencies
   • Goals and Constraints
     • General Intranet Goals
     • Redesign Goals
     • Constraints
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Basic Intranet Features
     • Search
     • Community Building
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
     • Usability Methods
     • Making Feedback Actionable
     • Surprising Results
   • Timeline
     • Launch
   • Results
     • The Users Speak
   • Lessons Learned
9. Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation
   • Summary
   • URL and Access
   • Technology
     • Search
   • Content Management
     • CMS Authors
     • Custom CMS Technology
   • Intranet Team
   • Background
   • Goals and Constraints
   • Users
   • User Tasks
   • Basic Intranet Features
     • Collaboration Tools
     • Data Visualization: The Killer App
   • Design Process and Usability Activities
     • Approach
     • Usability Methods
   • Timeline
   • Results
   • Lessons Learned
10. IKEA North America Services, LLC
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Technology
    • Content Management System
      • CMS Platform
      • CMS Authoring
    • Intranet Team
    • Budget
    • Background
      • Accommodating an Exception
    • Goals and Constraints
      • Goals
      • Constraints
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Basic Intranet Features
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
      • A Commitment to Continual Improvement
      • Asking the Users: "What's Wrong?"
      • Silence is Golden
      • Annual Redesign
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
11. Ministry of Transport (New Zealand)
    • Summary
    • URL And Access
    • Technology
    • Content Management
      • Managing Content with Templates
      • Content Authoring
    • Intranet Team
      • Site Operations and Ownership
      • It Takes a Team to Build an Intranet: A Team of Agencies
    • Goals And Constraints
      • Goals
      • Constraints
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Features
      • A Need for Collaboration Tools
      • Community Tools
      • Search Technology
      • Data Visualization
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
      • Redesign Goals
      • Usability Methods
    • Timeline
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
12. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Technology
    • Content Management
      • CMS Technology
      • Content Authoring
      • Training CMS Publishers
    • The Intranet Team
      • The Intranet in a Post-Merger Environment
      • Merging Four Sites into One
      • Developing a New IA
      • Working with Agencies
    • Goals and Constraints
    • Users
    • User Tasks
    • Basic Intranet Features
      • Specialized Content Areas
      • Collaboration Tools
      • Data Visualization
      • Search
    • Design Process and Usability Activities
      • Redesign goals
      • Constraints
      • Usability Activities
      • Engaging Users from Across the Organization
      • Collaboration Tools Bridge the Geographic Divide
      • Virtual Card Sorting
      • Iterative Design Using Wireframes
      • Test with a Friend (or Two)
      • Putting the Research into Action
    • Timeline
    • Results
    • Lessons Learned
13. SAP AG
    • Summary
    • URL and Access
    • Technology
      • Content management and Governance
      • Content Management
      • Information Access
    • Intranet Team
      • Ownership
      • Staffing
    • Background
    • Timeline
    • Goals and Constraints
      • Corporate Portal Goals
      • Constraints
      • Redesign Goals
    • Users
    • User Tasks
      • SAP Portfolio
      • Employee Services
      • Developer Dashboard
      • Task-Based Workplaces
      • Search
      • Collaboration Tools
      • Bulletin Boards
      • Data Visualization
    • Representing the Users
    • Lessons Learned
14. Recommendations for the Intranet Design Process
15. Intranets Not Selected: Common Issues
16. Selection Criteria and Process

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

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 the Usability Week 2008 conference (New York, San Francisco, London, and Melbourne)

We can conduct a usability review of your intranet.