Each winning intranet has its own style, feature set, and personality, unique and special in its own way. But, great minds do think alike, and some themes and features are common in multiple or all of the winning intranets in our Intranet Design Annual 2016.
The 10 best-designed intranets for 2016 may be leading-edge cases, but the trends in their design should spread to more mainstream intranets in the next few years. Although every intranet feature won’t work well at every organization, feature trends from outstanding intranets can inspire your intranet redesign. Stay ahead of the curve and consider taking on some of the following intranet design trends now:
On simple, frequently used forms with one or two fields, such as a search box or login form, the strain on memory is less of an issue than with complex or rarely used forms. That is because with simple, familiar forms, users can guess what they are supposed to enter. Although, on even a simple
Why are we willing to sleep in strangers’ beds, or conversely, let strangers into our homes? We do so because Airbnb has established a trusted, secure, and easy to use customer experience. Similar to Rent the Runway, Airbnb is a player in the growing “sharing” economy. The peer-to-peer online
Wireframes are a great way of showing layout, but they don't describe interaction well, and they are especially poor at documenting the layout of digital products that have a lot of dynamic content, such as mobile apps or webapps. Wireframes are most useful when documenting websites (or other
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability
Can the blockchain and IoT solve international freight’s issues?
Dominik Schiener: Like with most people, it started in 2012 when I first heard and read about Bitcoin. The concept behind Bitcoin intrigued me and I wanted to get involved. I started out with mining but then moved on to create my own startups in Switzerland and the UK. For the past year I’ve been
‘Our Users Are Everyone’: Designing Mass-Market Products for Large User Audiences
More important than finding the exact cutoff point between groups is to make sure they become part of your research and design planning. Depending on the depth of the difference between the groups and the implications for usage and your business, you might consider the groups sufficiently distinct
top 10 intranet trends of 2016
When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods
The distinction here is an important one, and goes well beyond the narrow view of qualitative as “open ended” as in an open-ended survey question. Rather, studies that are qualitative in nature generate data about behaviors or attitudes based on observing them directly, whereas in quantitative
User Need Statements
In design thinking (as well as in any product-development process), it is important to define the problem you want to solve before spending time and resources on generating possible solutions. (A great solution to the wrong problem will fail.) This approach maximizes resource use and decreases the
Mobile Navigation: Image Grids or Text Lists?
During our study, one user noticed an icon at the top of the product-listings page for camping tents on the Sports Authority mobile website. Curious about what the icon meant, he tapped on it and discovered the ability to swap between a list view and grid for the products displayed. After toggling
User Experience vs. Customer Experience: What’s the difference?
A good relationship-level experience requires good interaction-level and journey-level experiences, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It’s not enough to have good interaction- or journey-level experiences to get a good relationship-level experience. A good relationship-level
Adding an Item to a Shopping Cart: Provide Clear, Persistent Feedback
On ecommerce sites, the first step of purchasing a product is adding it to the shopping cart. Clear feedback that this step was completed successfully gives users a sense of control and allows them to confidently continue shopping or proceed with their checkout. (It also complies with two of the 10
A Look Back at the 2018 WP Engine Summit
Next, WP Engine Founder and Chief Technical Officer Jason Cohen, provided insight into WordPress as a solution for a developer and marketers everyday woes as well as a solution for the growing needs of tomorrow’s digital landscape. Today, he said, WordPress powers nearly a third of the web, and
top 10 intranet trends of 2016
Recapping the State of the Word 2018
Mullenweg referenced his 2017 State of the Word where he told the WordPress community to “learn JavaScript deeply.” He said the second request is much easier: learn blocks deeply. The blocks are now the DNA of WordPress. Once you have learned about blocks, the possibilities with creation will
A Look Back at the 2018 WP Engine Summit
Next, WP Engine Founder and Chief Technical Officer Jason Cohen, provided insight into WordPress as a solution for a developer and marketers everyday woes as well as a solution for the growing needs of tomorrow’s digital landscape. Today, he said, WordPress powers nearly a third of the web, and
UX Expert Reviews
Expert reviews can be done at any stage in the design cycle if the team has access to a UX expert. However, because the expert’s time can be quite precious, in many organizations expert reviews are used before a major redesign project, to identify significant strengths and weaknesses of the
Service Blueprints: Definition
Think of service blueprints as a part two to customer journey maps. Similar to customer-journey maps, blueprints are instrumental in complex scenarios spanning many service-related offerings. Blueprinting is an ideal approach to experiences that are omnichannel, involve multiple touchpoints, or
Journey Mapping 101
User stories are used in Agile to plan features or functionalities. Each feature is condensed down to a deliberately brief description from a user’s point of view; the description focuses on what the user wants to do, and how that feature will help. The typical format of a user story is a single
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
The Place of Secure Browser Extensions in 2019’s Enhanced Cyber Threats
For example, security researchers in 2018 uncovered four malicious extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store. It was not a case of isolation as there were reports that in late July and early August of 2017, unknown attackers compromised the accounts of at least two Chrome extension developers. The
Three things every IoT manufacturer should do to improve security
When it comes to security, corporations are struggling to keep up with the speed at which problems evolve. For example, a researcher with Google Project Zero recently discovered a flaw in Broadcom Wi-Fi chips that could allow someone to remotely execute code on affected iPhones, Nexuses and
Why Blockchain and Remanufacturing are a Perfect Match
For example, an automotive remanufacturing blockchain could be built, parts could be posted for potential buyers to view, or buyers could post the type, quantity, and quality of parts they require. Payment options could then be automated via smart contracts when parts are shipped. Blockchain would
top 10 intranet trends of 2016
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
The 6 Biggest Risks Today’s Internet Entrepreneurs Must Battle
In an online world where you put your products and services out there for the world to see, there’s always the risk that someone could come in and steal your thunder. The best way to avoid this is by (a) filing for all of the proper trademarks and patents, and (b) creating such a magnetic brand
Top 10 Intranet Trends of 2016 | Usability Insights From Sun Microsystem's 1997 Web Design
Usability Insights From Sun Microsystem's 1997 Web Design
Fast downloads are the single most important usability consideration in Web design. We recently surveyed 1854 users and found that the regression weight between "download speed" and overall satisfaction was 0.264 in a multiple regression to predict users' overall satisfaction ratings from six
Priming and User Interfaces
Priming has been extensively studied in cognitive and social psychology, and such priming examples are pervasive in almost all aspects of everyday life; priming shapes our behaviors and reactions to the environment and is an often an effective shortcut that allows us to take quick decisions. It is
Overuse of Overlays: How to Avoid Misusing Lightboxes
If the content is too long to fit into a small lightbox, will you add a scrollbar? If so, consider disabling the browser scrollbar to prevent users from mistakenly scrolling the background page instead of the lightbox. (Though disabling the browser scrollbar can have unintended consequences
