Intranet Usability Guidelines: Findings from User Testing of 42 Intranets Vol. 02: Accessing the Intranet: Address, Homepage, and Personalization

Part of the Intranet Usability Guidelines Series

There are many occasions when employees see only the homepage on the intranet. Use this report to make that experience count, and inform and include your whole organization. Understandable log in procedures can help ensure the safety of information, and personalization of content delivers the right information to the right employees for maximum efficiency. This report will help you engage and include employees on the homepage, derive positive access and login UI’s so they can get their work done securely and efficiently.

This 165-page report contains 107 design recommendations based on our usability research. Discussions and 82 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Topics

• Engaging Intranet homepages
  • Types of homepages
  • Push tasks and knowledge on the homepage
  • People don't notice everything on the homepage
  • Intranet access, name, and address
• Login, passwords, security
  • Address and login examples
  • Single sign-on
  • Remote access
• Personalization and customization
  • Ideal personalization workflow
  • Increase productivity through role-based, personalized content
• Promoting the Intranet
• Improving response times

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

In total, 176 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).

In addition, this report includes findings from data obtained from surveys given out at multiple Nielsen Norman Group Usability Week conferences to intranet designers.