21 January 2008
Consistency at heart of award-winning Australian intranet
Easy navigation, simple design and robust operation prove key features.
Intranets are often suffocated with too many features, hindered by expensive software and ruined by navigation so complex and clunky it can beat the most determined user. Solve these problems and you could have a world-leading site.
Last week, the Nielsen Norman Group announced it’s “Top 10 Intranets of 2008”, including in that list a little-known team at the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Primary Industries, Australia.
Headed up by internal communications manager, Kate Needham (see Figure 1. below), the department’s “InSite” intranet has become an invaluable communication platform for some 3,500 staff, many of who are in the field.
Figure 1. The NSW Department of Primary Industries team: (left) Penny Wheeler, web content officer, and (right) Kate Needham, internal communications manager.
(Photo: Nielsen Norman Group)
Winning points
What were the key things this team, based in Orange, NSW, did to gain global recognition for its work and make waves on a list dominated by major US and European corporations?
We’ve also included plenty of white space and we worked hard to make the underlying, open-source software robust.
Despite a difficult beginning – the challenge of a 4-department merger in 2004 dictated the need for a centralized channel to keep information flowing – InSite’s strength is in its usability.
“Some standout features include the simplicity of its design, a consistent look and intuitive, topic-based navigation,” says Needham.
“The site really does maintain its design and feel throughout, even though there are quite a few pages. We’ve also included plenty of white space and we worked hard to make the underlying, open-source software robust, although there were a lot of bugs to iron out,” she adds.
Ticking the right boxes
InSite checked several other boxes on the Nielsen Norman Group’s 2008 best practice list, namely, regular news and articles to stay up to date, and consistent branding, which Needham says have been crucial in the site’s success.
“The intranet is one of our most important internal communications channels,” says Needham. “All major news and announcements appear on the homepage and we have a form that people can use to submit news items and photos to keep the homepage fresh.”
“The site itself is part of a suite of tools that also includes a weekly e-mail newsletter called ‘InBrief’, and a printed newsletter called ‘Inside DPI’.”
We have a form that people can use to submit news items and photos to keep the homepage fresh.
“It was important for us to create an identity for the intranet, and for all of the internal communications tools to be easily identified and to relate to each other visually,” she says.
Internal recognition
The Nielsen award brings with it some vital recognition for the intranet.
“There’s just two of us working full time on the intranet, myself and web content officer Penny Wheeler, with around 30 people now trained on how to use it and publish content."
It’s been quite satisfying to win, but, more importantly, we’ve had a lot of positive comments internally, and it’s going to help us argue that the intranet is actually a pretty useful tool, as opposed to a waste of resources.”
A great deal more to come
Despite their success so far, Needham isn’t about to get complacent, adding that there’s much more to come.
“We’re working on distributed publishing so a lot more people can add to the site. We want to add collaborative tools, expert-finder capabilities, better integration with some of our support resources, an improved knowledge base… There’s so much more we want to do,” she adds.
Have your say
What innovative methods have you used to develop your intranet? Do you need ideas for further enhancing your employee website? Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
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