Intranet Usability Guidelines: Findings from User Testing of 42 Intranets Vol. 08: Content Management and Supporting Multiple Locations and Languages

Part of the Intranet Usability Guidelines Series

A distributed content model, in which each department has content contributors, keeps information fresh and varied. The best intranets instruct people about how to post, edit, and maintain content.

The report also covers considerations in building an intranet that supports users in multiple locations—whether just down the halfway or around the world—as well as provides information in multiple languages.

This 141-page report contains 80 design recommendations based on our usability research. Discussions and 75 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Topics

• Content management
  • Approaches to content management
  • Types of intranet content
  • Managing multiple content contributors
  • Content management tools: positive and negative aspects of different tools
  • Assigning content responsibility
  • Reviewing and publishing
• Forms for adding content
  • Specific, rigorous content entry forms: why offer controlled forms?
  • Elements of good content forms
• Keeping content updated, unique, and organized
  • Content contribution: challenges and solutions
  • Instructing people to post, edit, and maintain content
  • Creating and posting content
• International considerations
  • Managing content for diverse languages and cultures
  • Supporting local needs and international users
  • Determining whether to implement one centralized, or multiple intranets for each location
  • Helpful international features
• Sample intranet guidelines

Research Method

The information in these reports is based on three separate rounds of user research with company employees as participants. We used two different research methods:

• One-on-one usability testing
• Field studies, during which we observed employees as they went about their normal work

Hundreds of people tested 42 intranets. The studies took place in the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, United Arab Emirates, and China (Hong Kong).