Engage your organisation
Involving management, staff and IT in your intranet
(re)development project
James Breeze, Chief Experience Officer
Joanna Lewis, Customer Experience Consultant
www.objectivedigital.com 1

Program
Why engage your organisation? 9.30 – 11.00
Morning tea
11.00 – 11.20
Gathering requirements 11.20 – 12.30
Lunch
12.30 – 1.30
Communicating your needs 1.30 – 3.00
Afternoon tea
3.00 – 3.20
Validating your design 3.20 – 4.00
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Activity: Introductions
• Where are you in the process?
• What are your key issues?
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Why engage your organisation?
• Executive:
– Strategic direction, funding, ownership
• Management:
– Content owners, provide resources, lead
cultural change
• IT:
– Providers of platform, technical support,
projects methodology, ‘gatekeepers’
• Staff :
– User needs
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Intranet governance
Executive
ownership
Strategic direction:
engaging management,
IT, key divisions
Tactical engagement: web authors,
publishers, staff representatives assist in user-research

Activity: Governance
• What governance structure best suits
your organisation?
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Gathering Requirements
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Basis for requirements
• Context: your business, strategy, goals,
‘next big thing’, technical environment
• Content: content types, volume,
functionality
• Users: user types, how and when they
access content
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Activity: Requirements
• What are the requirements for your
intranet project?
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Techniques for gathering
requirements
• Current web usage and search data
• Stakeholder interviews
• Focus groups
• Ethnographic research
• Surveys
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Activity: Requirements
• Write a script for a stakeholder interview
for your intranet project.
• Write a script for a user focus group for
your intranet project.
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Communicating your needs
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Communicating your needs
• Requirements report
• Information architecture (IA)
• Wireframes
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What to consider for IA
• Primary navigation structure
• Secondary navigation
• Alternative access paths
• Home page content
• Utilities links
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Techniques for developing IA
• Brainstorm (within project team)
• Workshop (with key stakeholders)
• Card sorting
– open
– closed
Tip: Use remote card sorting with optimalsort.com
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Tools for documenting IA
• MS Word or Excel
• MS Visio
• Mindmap (demonstration)
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Wireframe design
• IA and navigation design skeleton
• Low tech, easily edited
• Demonstrates navigation and page
layout
• Wireframe for key page types
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What to consider for wireframing
• Constraints – technical, CMS,
accessibility
• Different page requirements
• Navigation depth and design
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Techniques for wireframing
• Brainstorm with key resources –
technical, design, IA
• Document with MS PowerPoint, MS
Visio, Axure or other diagramming
software
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Activity: Developing the following
intranet wireframe
• Navigation structure to four levels (9 at L1)
• Home page content: DG’s Blog, 4 news
items, access to 5 key applications, 5 key
forms, 1 large promotional pod
• Utilities for search, staff directory, sitemap,
intranet help, site feedback
• Slow access in regional areas
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Validating your design
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Validating your design
• Prototyping
– Paper prototyping
– HTML prototyping
• Usability testing
– Guerilla testing
– Formal testing
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Typical usability test
• Brief explanation of project and process
• First impressions: user browses around
the site and gives verbal impression
• Scenarios: user completes set tasks on
the site
• Evaluation: user completes open and
closed questions evaluating the site

Activity: Scenarios
• Write 5 key scenarios to test your intranet
development.
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Summary of organisational
involvement
• Intranet governance
• Requirements - organisational strategy,
technical platform, content, users
• Information architecture –
brainstorming, cardsorting
• Wireframing - brainstorming
• Development – usability testing

Contact
O: Level 3, 50 York St Sydney NSW 2000
P: 1300 858 015
E: jbreeze@objectivedigital.com
E: jlewis@objectivedigital.com
W: www.objectivedigital.com
B: www.usableworld.com.au
©2007 Objective Digital Pty Ltd www.objectivedigital.com 26