This document discusses best practices for successful SharePoint projects and user experience. It provides tips in several areas: - Involve users from the beginning and get buy-in from management to avoid users seeing it as an "IT thing." - Simplify forms and navigation using consistent structure and metadata. Search should drive effects rather than just searching. - Consider starting small with existing components rather than a "big bang" approach. Be aware of design principles like placing important content above the fold. - Give users control over their content and work in progress. Provide training and support to help users solve their needs rather than just teaching functionality.

1. Successful SharePoint Projects
and User eXperience
Bart Wessels
bart.wessels@skybow.com
www.skybow.com

4. Intranet
• An intranet is a private network accessible only to an organization's
staff. Generally a wide range of information and services from the
organization's internal IT systems are available that would not be
available to the public from the Internet. A company-wide intranet
can constitute an important focal point of internal communication
and collaboration, and provide a single starting point to access
internal and external resources. In its simplest form an intranet is
established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and
wide area networks (WANs).
• Intranets began to appear in a range of larger organizations from
1994.
Source: Wikipedia

6. Do you know how many
collaboration technologies
there are?
E-Mail
Phone
Instant Messaging
Knowledge Management
White-boarding

8. Who owns the intranet?

9. Single Infrastructure for Intranet, Internet
and Extranet Portals

10. Things I’ve heard in the past
“our users can’t work with SharePoint”
“then you don’t know our users”
“our users are different”
“they cannot fill in Forms”

11. Consumer
web

12. The Problem With Microsoft SharePoint?
People
• This is an indication of human
deficiency, rather than
technological deficiency. It is not
the technology that is failing the
organization in as much as it is
the organization failing the
technology,"
https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/the-problem-with-microsoft-sharepoint-people/

13. Architecture
• A Information Architecture provides
• Consistency
• Simpler maintenance
• One version of the truth
• Structured and unstrucured
• Use wisely
• Content Types
• Managed metadata
• List-based Site Columns

14. Be the user
• Don’t think about what SharePoint does or how it does it.
Think about what your users want.
• Many developers don’t use SharePoint as a collaboration
platform. Use what you build.

15. Do’s and don’t’s
• Get Users involved from the
beginning
• Convince employees about the
advantages of the new platform
• Make sure it is not an IT thing
• Use Ambassadors
• Management should give the
example

16. Do’s and don’t’s
• Turn alternatives off / read only
• Explain why things are the way
they are in Document
Manangement / Processes
• Use Metadata wise
• Keep a clear structure
• Make sure users understand the
structure
• Be consistent

17. Forms
• Make them easy for end users
• Prefill what you can based on
context
• Be consistent
• Make them look like a form
where possible

18. Search
• Search is about finding, not
searching
• Implement it, do not turn it on
• Requires regular care and
feeding
• Use search to drive effects

19. When SharePoint is new to you
• Make sure that SharePoint
knowledge is there before you
start a SharePoint project
• Choose a partner that fits, don’t
choose only on price
• A corporate intranet is different
than Document Management
and Record Management in
SharePoint, keep that in mind
when selecting a partner

20. Start from scratch or
with components?
• Do you want exactly what you want or
not?
• Big bang or small steps?

21. Be aware about design
• If users have to scroll every time
they land on a page, you’ve put
things in the wrong place
• Eyes scan from upper left to
lower right in an F shape

22. Control
• Give users control – it’s their
system
• Have a policy (open unless?)
• List based settings where
possible
• Let them know the difference
between published content and
work in progress “if it’s not shared it doesn’t exist”

23. At last..
• Don’t expect your users to
understand all functionality
• Training can’t cover everything –
demonstrate patterns
• Be an internal consultant
• “How can I help you to solve
your requirements?”
• Give SharePoint a name, not
SharePoint

24. And remember!
Every company is different
A good intranet is never finished!

25. Thank you
Q&A