Intranet content and Information Architecture
– posted January 7th, 2008 by Shane Diffily No comments
On 7th January Jakob Neilsen announced the winners of this year’s Top 10 Best Intranets. A hearty congrats to the deserving victors. (Unfortunately, no Irish companies are represented.)
Intranet information architectures
On a related topic, last November Jakob published the results of research he conducted into the Information Architecture of intranets. His conclusion was that - despite having looked at more such sites than (probably) anyone else alive - he was unable to suggest a single structure that would suit them all.
While that may be true, it is not the whole story.
I have read many of his reports over the years and what strikes me is not the differences between most intranets, but the similarities. In particular, the commonality of content from one intranet to another is remarkably constant.
Just 4 main types of intranet content
In an article entitled “The 4 Pillars of Intranet Content” published in January 2007, I argued that there are just 4 types of content on most intranets. These are:
- Work Content
- HR Content
- Corporate Content
- Social Content
Why so?
Well, most companies use an intranet to solve pretty much the same basic problem - to support staff by giving them access to everything they need to do their jobs and manage their careers. The inevitable result is a strong consistency in content themes.
The benefit of recognising this pattern is less legwork when building a new site.
Of course, the challenge remains to organise all this information in such a way that reflects the ‘mental model’ of your own staff. And as Jakob has shown, there are more ways that 1 to skin that particular cat!
Digg this post Submit to del.icio.us Submit to technorati
Categories Design
Leave a comment