Re-engineering Your Intranet With User Friendly Architecture

Re-engineering your intranet with user- friendly architecture Strategically Managing Intranet Developments Sydney, Australia 3rd March 2009

“The customer is always right. Even when they’re wrong, they’re still right” Matt Moran, celebrity chef and restaurateur Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 2 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Introduction  For your intranet, your customers are your users  In terms of knowing what they want, need and do, the customer (or the user) is always right  But you might need to translate between what is “right” and what they think is right  And you have to ask the right questions, you can’t just ask them what they want  Listening to your users is the recipe for user friendly intranets  Image credit  images.theage.com.au/ftage/ffximage/2008/10/30/wr_moran2.jpg Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 3 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

A bit about Patrick Kennedy  I’m a user experience architect  Which means I design user experiences by understanding users, predominantly for websites  I have a particular interest in user research  My experience includes time at Step Two Designs, where I consulted clients on intranet needs analysis and redesign  My background is in Computer Systems Engineering and web development Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 4 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Re-engineering your intranet… Engineering is “the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people” (source: Webster’s) Requirements Analysis Design Implementation Veriﬁcation Maintenance Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 5 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Re-engineering your intranet…  Webster’s dictionary deﬁnes engineering as “the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people”  Some of the words might be a bit odd but I think this sounds very familiar to anyone who has redesigned an intranet  A typical engineering process involves: Requirements, Analysis, Design, Implementation, Veriﬁcation and Maintenance  Which should also sound familiar Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 6 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

…with user-friendly architecture Learnable Efﬁcient Memorable Satisfying Error-free Relevant Streamlined Personalised Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 7 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

…with user-friendly architecture  What is a user-friendly intranet architecture (UFIA)?  In this context I’m talking about “Information Architecture”  Usability consists of: [http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html]:  Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?  Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?  Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?  Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?  Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?  Today I’m going to add “Relevant” and talk about how a relevant intranet is Streamlined and Personalised Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 8 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

How do we do this? Identify needs Analysing Streamlining behaviour processes Personalising Research Testing it! Design Validate Requirements Analysis Design Implementation Veriﬁcation Maintenance Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 9 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

How do we do this?  Overlaying the engineering process with a generic user centred design (UCD) process we see how they can ﬁt together  Research  Understand the goals, attitudes and behaviours of our audience  Assessing user psychology  Identifying needs  Analysing behaviours  Design  We translate this knowledge of our audience into a design solution  Streamlining processes to simplify work ﬂow and usability  Personalising the intranet experience by creating user centred design  Validate  We test our design solution to ensure it suits our audience Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 10 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

When do we do this?  Often UCD is a ﬁxed component at the start (or end) of a project  But is valuable throughout the development cycle  As user advocates, we can assist with strategy and planning before thinking of a speciﬁc product  Similarly, we can ensure design and build “stick to the plan” Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 11 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

This is Galina, senior account manager  Ofﬁce based  50 major clients  18 mths at company  Mostly phone/email  And lots of ofﬂine and paper usage  Little need for collaboration  Rarely uses intranet  “Time is money” Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 12 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

This is Galina, senior account manager  Galina…  Based in HQ office, occasionally some travel  Responsible for 50 medium and large customers  Some sales and biz dev  Been with the company 18 months  She finds it hard to know who to talk to about specific things  Easier to just pick up the phone, lots of tacit knowledge in her role  In fact she uses email and her phone more than anything else  Also uses a lot of hard-copy manuals, procedures, rate cards  Quite autonomous, little need for collaboration  Doesn’t use the intranet much, doesn’t offer her anything  Uses it for ESS/HR stuff and some forms, every once in a way  She is time poor and a bit of a control freak  Wants information in her hands quickly, the long term is not important  Image credit  Based on illustrations & concepts from Sun Microsystems, Inc. designcomics.org/slides/Galina-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 13 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Identifying needs Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 14 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Identifying needs  The ﬁrst step is to work out what is needed  And ﬁnd out who your users are  Assessing user psychology, if you will  Questions we want to ask (perhaps not directly) are  What do users need from the intranet?  What are their goals and attitudes?  How can we provide something useful for them? Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 15 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

User research for identifying needs  Many different ways to learn about your users  Interviews, proxy interviews and contextual inquiry  Diary studies and cultural probes  Competitor analysis, expert review, heuristic review  Surveys, focus groups and other market research techniques  Card sorting (to discover terminology and info relationships)  Ethnography is becoming more widely used  Get into the ﬁeld, live the life of your subjects and take their point of view during analysis and decision making  Image credits  (top) Workplace observation. Source: Step Two Designs  (bottom left) Interview. Source: News Digital Media  (bottom right) Focus group Source: www.mosman.nsw.gov.au/planningreview/images/24.jpg Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 16 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Interviews  One method in particular is the interview  It is the “pack horse” of the intranet user researcher  There are several different ways of doing interviews:  One-on-one with users  Proxy (speaking to someone who can tell you about your users)  Contextual inquiry  (as part of) Usability testing  Paired interviews • Interview two participants at the same time • Eg people from different regions/departments doing similar jobs • Participants validate each others opinions and processes  Convergent interviews • Conduct two separate interviews simultaneously then compare similarities and differences Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 17 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Further reading  Visocky O'Grady, J. and Visocky O'Grady, K. (2006) A Designer's Research Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need. Rockport Publishers.  Gomol, K. and Church, E. and Bond, E. (2007) The Field Study Handbook: A common sense approach to discovering user needs. User Interface Engineering. Available online at: www.uie.com/reports/field_study_handbook/  Mulder, S. with Yaar, Z. (2007). The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web. New Riders.  Kuniavsky, M. (2003). Observing the User Experience: A practitioner’s guide to user research. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.  Biller, G. and Scovel, K. (2008). Getting people to talk [video]. Available online at: www.vimeo.com/1269848  Kennedy, P. (2009) Intermediaries in user research. Available one at: www.gurtle.com/ppov/2009/01/23/intermediaries-in-user-research Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 18 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

This is Miguel, ﬁeld service technician  Works on the road  Servicing equipment  Needs access to tech knowledge base  Needs to consult and collaborate with team  Uses intranet in frequent short bursts  8 years at company  Has extensive network  “Is this the latest info?” Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 19 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

This is Miguel, field service technician  Miguel… Works on the road, rarely in office Services equipment for all customers in his area Accessing lots of technical info, it’s part of his “intranet” Some email but lots of face-to-face and phone collaboration with other technicians (how do you fix this? What do you do to handle that?)  Not a lot of hard-copy, everything online  Can’t always access, so needs to connect and synch often  Makes reference to info frequently but not for long  Been with the company 8 years  Knows everyone and has a big personal network, who who to contact  Having accurate and up-to-date information is vital  Hates wasting time chasing information about a particular machine and its history  Image credit  Based on illustrations & concepts from Sun Microsystems, Inc. designcomics.org/slides/Miguel-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 20 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Analysing behaviour Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 21 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Analysing behaviour  In addition to identifying and understanding our users needs we also need to analyse their behaviour  How do they use the intranet?  When? Why? Why not?  Which features or content are used the most? Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 22 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

User research for analysing behaviour  Similar to identifying needs, and usually done at same time  But particular methods for analysing behaviour include:  Task analysis workshop  Search analytics (search engine logs)  Web analytics (including path analysis tools eg Clicktale.com)  Tech support service logs  Observation (including usability testing and eye tracking)  CRM and sales data analysis  Image credits  (bottom left) Web analytics. Source: Google Analytics  (top right) Contextual inquiry, also known as a “site visit” Source: www.hillaryelmore.com/images/contextualinquiry.jpg  (top left) Eye-tracking. Source: www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200503/Heatmap.jpg  (bottom right) Workshop. Source: www.dwp.gov.uk/pensionsreform/forum/photos/collection7/coll7-5.jpg Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 23 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Further reading  Everything listed on slide 18, plus…  Unknown (2006) Task analysis methods. UsabilityNet. Available online at: http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/taskanalysis.htm  Kennedy, P. (2007) Website analytics. Available online at: http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/2007/11/14/website-analytics  Diamond, F. (2003) Web trafﬁc analytics and user experience. Boxes and Arrows. Available online at: www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/web_traffic_analytics_and_user_experience.php  Hackos, JoAnn & Redish, Janice C. (1998) User and Task Analysis for Interface Design. John Wiley & Sons.  Rubin, J. (1994) Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests. Wiley.  Penzo, M. (2005) Introduction to Eyetracking: Seeing Through Your Users’ Eyes. UXmatters. Available online at: uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000040.php  Godin, S. (2007) Eye-tracking rules. Available online at: www.sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/11/eye-tracking-ru.html Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 24 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Relevancy is the key to moving forward  You’ve done research but how do you create your user-friendly intranet architecture?  How do you move from research into design?  The key is that extra attribute of intranet usability we introduced before: “relevant”  You take what you have learnt from your research: identifying needs and analysing behaviour  And you use this to determine what is relevant  Two ways this often manifests are:  Streamlining  Personalisation Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 25 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Streamlining  Streamlining processes to simplify work ﬂow and usability  Automating to remove choices/steps  Simplifying  Stick to usability conventions  Use your users’ language  The user interface should provide good translation between the system model and users’ mental model  Two examples are:  Employee self-service (ESS) leave form  CMS user interface Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 26 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Streamlining by simplifying path to ESS NEED In main nav In sub nav I just want to check my ESS ESS login holidays! Click here to Login form Login to ESS ACTION Only thing on page Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 27 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Streamlining by simplifying path to ESS  Here is an example of the navigation path to the ESS (Employee Self Service) section of a large intranet  Galina’s “need” is to check her holidays  The necessary “action” is to use ESS  But between the two are a lot of unnecessary steps  ESS is often the most highly used part of a corporate intranet  If nothing else is of value to staff, then why on earth would you make it this hard to get to it?  Sure it’s a third-party web application, but integration could be better than this  You could further stream line by including ESS in ‘single sign-on’ so the login form is also removed  Image credit  Based on illustrations & concepts from Sun Microsystems, Inc. designcomics.org/slides/Galina-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 28 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Streamlining by automation of CMS tasks NEED Creates article asset I just want to put this Create Write article article up! page asset Assign article Publish page to page ACTION Publishes both assets Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 29 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Streamlining by automation of CMS tasks  Here is an example of how a Content Management System (CMS) is in desperate need of some automation  Miguel’s “need” is to publish a technical article on the intranet  The necessary “action” is to publish the article using the CMS  In between are unnecessary steps, requiring Miguel to understand and interact with the internal “asset model” of the CMS  If articles are always on a page, then you can automate the creation of the page asset and linking of the two assets  Image credit  Based on illustrations & concepts from Sun Microsystems, Inc. designcomics.org/slides/Miguel-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 30 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

An aside: why does this happen?  Especially when it comes to a CMS interface…  Developers don’t understand users, nor think like them  Poor speciﬁcations/requirements fail to capture real context of use  Team is too close to the technical details  No usability testing  Trying to be everything rather than a system to suit a speciﬁc purpose  Edge cases and “what if” scenarios are not prioritised realistically  Further reading  Kennedy, P. (2009) 17 usability tips to make your CMS rock. Available online at: www.gurtle.com/ppov/2009/02/10/17-usability-tips-to-make-your-cms-rock Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 31 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

What are your examples? Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 32 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

What are your examples?  The best examples of streamlining processes and interfaces to make intranets more user-friendly are likely to be found right in this very room!  Image credit  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdutile/3289061063/ Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 33 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Personalisation vs Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 34 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Personalisation  Personalising the intranet experience by creating user centred design  This is a way of catering for vastly different users  And seemingly contradictory behaviours/needs  For example:  Business unit centric home pages  Location-based tools and content  Image credits  (left) http://designcomics.org/slides/Miguel-v1-0.odp  (right) http://designcomics.org/slides/Galina-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 35 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Personalised intranet home page Just what I need! Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 36 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Personalised intranet home page And just what I need! Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 37 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Personalised intranet home page  Tailor at least the home page to the speciﬁc staff groups that exist with your organisation  Galina needs quick access to “local” details, and the occasional procedure and form  Miguel and his team need collaboration tools and access to technical knowledge-base content  Further reading  Kennedy, P. (2007) Intranet redesign for Canon Australia. Available online at: www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_canoncasestudy/  Image credit  Based on illustrations & concepts from Sun Microsystems, Inc. designcomics.org/slides/Galina-v1-0.odp and http://designcomics.org/slides/Miguel-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 38 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Location-based personalisation TrueLocal.com.au is a business directory similar to YellowPages Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 39 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Location-based personalisation  Personalisation might also include tailoring content to the geographic location of the user  For example, weather module and TrueLocal.com.au module give info relevant for the speciﬁc city/ofﬁce the user is in  Small but crucial elements that increase users’ perception of the intranet as a useful tool  Further reading on personalisation  Robertson, J. (2005) Search engine ‘best bets’. Step Two Designs. Available online at: www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_bestbets/  Grenfell, C. (2007) Do staff make use of personalisation features?. Step Two Designs. Available online at: www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personalisation/  Image credit  Based on illustrations & concepts from Sun Microsystems, Inc. designcomics.org/slides/Miguel-v1-0.odp Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 40 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

What are your examples? Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 41 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

What are your examples?  The best examples of personalisation to make intranets more user- friendly are likely to be found right in this very room!  Image credit  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdutile/3289061063/ Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 42 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

The importance of validation Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 43 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

The importance of validation  You probably won’t get your UFIA right the ﬁrst time, so it’s important to validate your design (ie usability testing)  This usability testing comes in many forms  It doesn’t have to be big, expensive testing in a lab  The key is that users are involved in the validation  And that realistic tasks are used for testing  Further reading: see the last three references on slide 24  Image credits  (top right) Typical lab-based usability testing Source: www.xperienceconsulting.com/eng/img/interior/labs-3.jpg  (bottom right) Paper prototyping for testing Source:www.nngroup.com/reports/prototyping/prototype_tabs.jpg  (left) Card Based Classiﬁcaton Evaluation Source: Step Two Designs Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 44 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Card Based Classiﬁcation Evaluation  A simple technique to test the usability of the IA  Tests the raw site structure without page layout or content distracting  You map out your IA onto cards  Then ask participants where they would “go”  Evolved from closed card sorting  Similar to another technique called “tree testing”  From this you might move on to paper prototyping your design  Further reading  Maurer, D. (2003) Card-based classiﬁcation evaluation. Boxes and Arrows. Available online at: www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_based_classification_evaluation Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 45 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

In summary  Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture ﬁrst requires you to identify and understand your customers’ needs  And then analyse their behaviour  Because the user is always right, even when they’re not “right”  You can then translate this into an intranet architecture that is, in addition to generic usability attributes, relevant  And hence more user-friendly and more useful  Among other things, making it relevant means the intranet should be streamlined and personalised  There are a number of simple methods available to help us with each step of this re-engineering process, including validating that we have been successful Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 46 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Any questions?  My contact details are: Patrick Kennedy pat@gurtle.com www.gurtle.com/ppov/  I will place these slides on line at www.slideshare.net/patrickkennedy  Feel free to email me any questions you have later Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture — slide 47 Gurtle Digital Solutions www.gurtle.com

Re-engineering Your Intranet With User Friendly Architecture

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Re-engineering Your Intranet With User Friendly Architecture — Presentation Transcript

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