Don’t Make Us Think:
Getting SharePoint to be
Useful, Usable, and Used
Kevin Parker, CIP
Sr. Enterprise Information Architect at NEOSTEK
@JKevinParker

@JKevinParker
Introduction
Don’t Make Us Think:
Getting SharePoint to be Useful, Usable, and Used

@JKevinParker
In this session, we’ll explore how to:
• Plan useful site types that meet your business
needs
• Plan usable content, navigation, and search
• Promote user adoption with communication,
learning, and support

@JKevinParker
User Adoption in ContextStrategy
What are we
trying to
accomplish?
What are
the Critical
Success
Factors?
Architecture
How do we
organize and
structure
things?
Governance
How do we
get people
to use it in
the ways we
intend?
Implementation
How do we
build it out
and get
users
started?
Operation
How do we
support
users and
drive
adoption?
Security, Privacy, Management, Business Continuity, Retention, Compliance, Etc.
User Adoption

@JKevinParker
Success = Adoption
Make it Useful
Meet business
needs with
good
architecture
Make it Usable
Design for
usability and
accessibility
Get it Used
Promote user
adoption with
communication,
learning, and
support

@JKevinParker
Make it Useful:
Plan site and list types that meet
your business needs
Don’t Make Us Think:
Getting SharePoint to be Useful, Usable, and Used

@JKevinParker
What Makes a Solution Useful?
• Meets real business needs
• Simplifies work processes
• Improves efficiency
• Improves quality
• Improves accountability
• Lets staff and leadership do their jobs!

@JKevinParker
First Things First: Name It
• Don’t call it “SharePoint”. Come up with a non-
product-specific name.
• Make it simple and easy for people to remember.
• Examples:
– Inside Acme (inside.acme.tld)
– Acme Connect (connect.acme.tld)
– Acme Hub (hub.acme.tld)
– Acme Central (central.acme.tld)

@JKevinParker
Identify Business Needs
Business Need Description Scope
Intranet Communication and knowledge
management for the organization
Organization
Collaboration Collaboration spaces for units and teams Units & Teams
Content & Case
Management
Document and content management for
specific business processes
Business Process
Records
Management
Records repository with appropriate
controls and retention management
Organization

@JKevinParker
Plan Site Types by Business Need
Business Need Site Types
Intranet Enterprise wiki (or other publishing site type)
Blog site
Collaboration Team sites (preconfigured for your teams)
Project sites (preconfigured for your projects)
Content & Case
Management
Document center site collections
Case sites (special preconfigured subsites)
Records Management Records center site collections

@JKevinParker
When You Don’t Plan: Ad Hoc Sprawl

@JKevinParker
When You Don’t Plan: Ad Hoc Sprawl

@JKevinParker
Plan Site Collections
SharePoint
Farm
Main Web
App
Web Application
Intranet
Site Collection
Search
Center
Site Collection
/teams/
Managed Path
Executive
Office
Site Collection
Line of
Business X
Site Collection
Line of
Business Y
Site Collection
Accounting
Site Collection
Legal
Site Collection
Human
Resources
Site Collection
IM & IT
Site Collection
Cross-Org
Teams
Site Collection
/sites/
Managed Path
Content
Type Hub
Site Collection
Document
Center X
Site Collection
Document
Center Y
Site Collection
Records
Center
Web Application
Records
Center 1
Site Collection
Records
Center 2
Site Collection
My Sites
Web Application
Collaboration: Each top-level
organizational unit gets a team
site collection with its own
content database:
• Ensure information isolation
by group
• Provide for growth and
maintenance
• Allow smaller teams to have
subsites with unique
permissions
• Create subsites in a special
site collection for cross-org
teams

@JKevinParker
Some Ways to Organize Sites
• Organize by Unit:
– Site Collection for each department or division
– Subsites for teams and projects
• Organize by Site Type:
– Site Collections for specific site types
– Subsites for specific instances of site types
• Organize by Program:
– Site Collection for each program
– Subsites for teams and projects

@JKevinParker
Use a Content Type Hub
• Centrally manage content types and site
columns.
• Centrally manage information policies tied to
content types.
• Publish changes across all site collections that
use these content types.

@JKevinParker
Create Reusable List Types
• Leverage content types and site columns in
the content type hub to create reusable lists.
• Keep metadata columns consistent across all
sites.
• Keep information management policies
consistent.

@JKevinParker
Determine What Goes Where
Information for
everyone
Goes on the
intranet or
unit-owned
intranet
subsite
Information just
for our team
Goes in the
team’s site
collection or
subsite
Information
related to a
process
Goes in the
case or
document
management
site
Information to be
kept as records
Goes in the
appropriate
records center

@JKevinParker
Make it Usable:
Plan usable content, navigation,
and search
Don’t Make Us Think:
Getting SharePoint to be Useful, Usable, and Used

@JKevinParker
Some Basic Rules of Usability
Krug’s first law of usability:
• “Don’t make me think.”
More principles:
• Make and keep only the information
you need, and eliminate ROT
(Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial).
• Make it easy to put information in the
right SPOT (Single Point Of Truth).
• Make information findable.
• Make it all accessible. Check out Don’t Make Me
Think by Steve Krug

@JKevinParker
Make Usable Content and Pages
• Use clear page titles and headings (h1, h2, h3).
• Omit unnecessary words.
• Use clear links and labels (including navigation).
• Make text readable (high contrast, not too small,
columns not too wide).
• Learn to love white space (you don’t pay by the
pixel).

@JKevinParker
Make it Clear What Goes Where
Information for
everyone?
Put it on the
intranet or
unit-owned
intranet
subsite
Information just
for our team?
Put it in the
team’s site
collection or
subsite
Information
related to a
process?
Put it in the
case or
document
management
site
Information to be
kept as records?
Put it in the
appropriate
records center
(Better yet,
automate this!)

@JKevinParker
Plan Usable Navigation
• Make the logo link back to the intranet home page across
all site types and site collections (in the master page).
• Make top-level (global) navigation consistent across
intranet pages and subsites.
• Context (quick launch) navigation can vary based on
location.
• Make it easy to get from a team’s collaboration site to their
intranet site.
• Create a clear site map and/or index for site collections and
subsites.

@JKevinParker
Improve Search
• Use search analytics to determine what people
are searching for and finding (or not).
• Leverage SharePoint search features:
– Results Types
– Display Templates
– Results Refiners
– Query Suggestions
• Plan on continuous improvement for search.

@JKevinParker
Get it Used:
Promote adoption by supporting
your user community
Don’t Make Us Think:
Getting SharePoint to be Useful, Usable, and Used

@JKevinParker
Promote User Adoption
• Communication
• Learning Resources
• Support
• Change Management

@JKevinParker
Communicate
• Leverage existing corporate communications
channels to market the solution, both before
and after implementation.
• Use the intranet to communicate to users
about how to use the solution, where things
go, how to get help, etc.

@JKevinParker
Provide Learning Resources
• Create simple wiki tutorial pages in each site to explain
how to do things on that site—and keep these current.
• Provide live and/or video tutorials specific to how to do
things on your sites.
• Host user group meetings.
• Create a “center of excellence” site for knowledge
management.
• DO NOT provide generic SharePoint training to users.

@JKevinParker
Provide Support
• The help desk must be capable of supporting
the solution (or routing to those who can).
• Provide types of support:
– Site planning and setup (initial and improvements)
– Records and information management guidance
– Access and permission levels (on/off boarding)
– Incident response

@JKevinParker
Manage Change
• When first implementing, plan migration for
information, processes, AND people.
• Monitor analytics and reports to improve
capacity, performance, service applications,
search, navigation, etc.
• Communicate and coordinate maintenance
windows and any service changes.

@JKevinParker
Leverage a Center of Excellence Site
Connect Central
Blog
§ News
§ Updates
§ Announcements
Wiki
§ How-to guides
§ Learning resources
§ Standards
§ Policies
Forum
§ Support
§ Ask the experts

@JKevinParker
Final Thought:
“Build it, and they will come?” That only works
in movies.
Instead, make your solution the “path of least
resistance.” Make it so simple that they don’t
have to think about how things work. They just
work.
Make it useful, usable, and used.

Kevin Parker, CIP
www.neostek.com
twitter.com/JKevinParker
www.linkedin.com/in/JKevinParker
www.JKevinParker.com