1. Julie Poroznuk, ABC CEBS JP Communication May 2007 Managing and Measuring Intranet Content

2. 2 Intranet Content What is an intranet? An intranet is an online presence secured behind the company’s firewall.

3. 3 Developing content and applications Focus must be on business needs in order to have long-term value. Intranet Content

4. 4 Effective Content  is connected to the key objectives of the organization  is up to date  provides timely information  is meaningful to the people who will use it  is from a trusted source Intranet Content

5. 5 Developing content Identify key work groups you want the intranet to serve  Functional teams  Business units  Key projects Ask the users: What are their content needs? What will have most impact on their performance?

6. 6 Intranet Content Sample questions  What are the most important things your team has to do over the next couple of years?  How could you personally be twice as effective?  If you could have anything you wanted to help you do your job better, what would it be?  What are the most frustrating time-wasters in your life?

7. 7 Intranet Content Classify the ideas according to:  how they will impact the team  how they will support the strategic goals  the cost and other required resources

8. 8 Intranet Content  build a list of content opportunities and options that range from quick-wins to high impact but high-cost applications  plot the options on a chart where one axis is the estimated impact or value, and the other the cost or difficulty Value Cost

9. 9 Intranet Content The oddities of Web space  no sense of scale  no sense of direction  no sense of location

10. 10 Intranet Content Finding Information  “no more than three clicks”  what really counts is how hard each click is  card sorting  people read computer text 28% slower than printed text  79% of users only scan web pages

11. 11 Intranet Content  re-purpose content  chunking  shorter pages = less scrolling  get rid of half the words - and then do that again  avoid happy talk (intro, welcome..)

12. 12 Intranet Content  keep the important stuff “above the fold”  use headings, sub-headings, point form  avoid instructions - should be self-explanatory  simple graphics

13. 13 Intranet Content Avoid PDF for On-Screen Reading “Forcing users to browse PDF files makes usability approximately 300% worse compared to HTML pages. Only use PDF for documents that users are likely to print.” Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox

14. 14 Managing the Content  content should be created, owned and managed by the people who own the knowledge  central team members should –help content contributors improve the service they provide –identify areas not being served by the intranet –work as advisors for new and special projects

15. 15 Managing the Content  employees should be able to update content independently  IT bottlenecks reduce efficiency  empower non-technical contributors  establish work flow for content creation

16. 16 Managing the Content  content management software should make it easy for you to set up the: –page templates –approval processes –user roles –rules about who should be responsible each content area  this should not require extensive database development or specialized programming

17. 17 Measuring Content Measurement Guidelines  simple metrics related to business objectives can be very powerful  don't measure because you can - but because it is meaningful  use a mixture of quantitative and qualitative metrics  stories are more powerful than statistics

18. 18 Measuring Content Using metrics allows  targets to be set  success to be assessed  ROI to be estimated  problems to be corrected

19. 19 Measuring Content Implementation metrics System usage  web usage statistics  search engine usage  messages sent/posted  other knowledge creation measures  knowledge use

20. 20 Measuring Content

21. 21 Measuring Content

22. 22 Measuring Content Number of users  hits  page requests  single page visits  visits  unique visits  user sessions  clickstream

23. 23 Measuring Content  information quality  information currency  user feedback  maintenance costs  staff efficiency  printing costs  distributed authoring  process efficiency, reduced time  transaction costs

24. 24 Measuring Content Customer Service Metrics  product sales  lead conversion  customer satisfaction  consistency of advice  call handling time  transactions processed  support requests  product development cycle

25. 25 Measuring Content Cultural Metrics  success stories, anecdotes  staff morale, satisfaction  cultural change  staff learning

26. 26 Measuring Content Guidelines and Tips  be specific  determine a baseline  automate measures  measure the right things  less measures, not more  effect of other activities  re-evaluate metrics

27. 27 Measuring Content  analyze log files regularly and act on findings  site statistics can be very misleading  focus on the user  combine methods  remember the big picture

28. 28 http://www.usability.gov/process.html

29. 29 What you don’t need  a Ph.D. in Psychology  a high-tech lab with lots of test apparatus  eye tracking device  multimillion dollar budget Usability Testing

30. 30 The six steps of testing  develop test plan  select participants  prepare test materials  conduct the test  debrief the participant  transform data into findings and recommendations Usability Testing

31. 31 Test Objectives Examples:  How easily can users locate the benefits information they need to determine their level of coverage?  How easily can users make changes to personal information? Usability Testing

32. 32 Match tasks to test objectives  Your child needs braces. Find out how much your dental plan will pay for orthodontist services.  You just got married. Register your new spouse as an eligible dependent for benefits coverage. Usability Testing

33. 33 Examples of conditions for success:  The user should be able to find the correct information in less than three minutes.  No more than four clicks should be needed to find the information. Usability Testing

34. 34 Examples of Measures  Excellent: completed the task easily with time and clicks to spare.  Acceptable or OK: completed the task within or close to requirements  Unacceptable: did not complete the task, or took much longer and more clicks to find the information than is acceptable. Usability Testing

35. 35 How many participants?  typical test has 6 to 12 participants  three for a simple test is an absolute minimum (remove idiosyncrasies)  three to five: enough information to be comfortable with your conclusions Usability Testing

36. 36 How do I select participants?  actual users, if known (average employees)  don’t use developers of the site  make sure the participants show up  provide some reward for participation  include at least a few LCUs (least competent users)  beware of highly seasoned users Usability Testing

37. 37 Who should conduct the tests? Test Monitor  most critical role  needs to objective  sometimes this person is the whole testing team  sometimes an external party is the best choice Usability Testing

38. 38 Data Logger  takes down information as participant performs tasks  usually logs several types of data: –time elapsed –number of clicks –path of clicks –success or failure Usability Testing

39. 39 Conduct a Pilot Test  test drive the tasks  makes sure everything works properly  don’t do this at the last minute  preferably with someone who would qualify as an actual participant Usability Testing

40. 40 Analyzing the Results Levels of severity  prevents completion of task  creates significant delay and frustration  has a minor effect  indicates possible future enhancements Usability Testing

41. 41 Recommending Changes  consider the complexity of the problems  consult with designers/developers, technical communicators, usability specialists  balance effort for benefit Usability Testing

42. 42 Communicating the Results  informal memo  verbal report  formal report –introduction –methodology –user profile –task list –results –discussion Usability Testing

43. 43 Usability Testing  moves the discussion from what’s right and what’s wrong to what works and what doesn’t  helps us realize that all users are not like us The point is not to prove or disprove something, but to inform your judgement. Usability Testing

44. 44 What is a usability review?  a usability expert reviews your site and provides a report  sometimes used before a re-design  can be used before testing to identify problem areas Usability Testing

45. 45  blogs  wikis  podcasts  videocasts  enterprise chat  interactive screensavers  VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) New Media

46. 46  put at least one new item on the global home page every day  give prominence to strategic information and “new” news  facilitate content contributions from everyone  integrate services and applications Making Intranets Meaningful

47. 47 Executive Summary  the intranet has entered maturity as a primary information tool  senior management perception of the intranet is out of sync with reality on the ground  intranets lack sufficient funding and resources  decision-making is an issue  customer-facing functions are largely missing from the intranet  primary strategy drivers are “building a common culture” Global Intranet Strategies Survey

48. 48  primary obstacle to achieving full potential is that it is too communication-oriented and lacks integrated applications  intranet evaluation is irregular and inconsistent  only 1 out of 4 organizations is obliged to demonstrate ROI for intranet investments  information flows are strongest in top-down direction  3 out of 4 have an employee directory, but only 1 out of 5 contain information about peoples’ skills and expertise Global Intranet Strategies Survey

49. 49  Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis) are making their way to the intranet  organizations who consider the intranet to be “business critical” are more likely to adopt Web 2.0 technologies and have stronger communication flows than average Global Intranet Strategies Survey

50. 50 Global Intranet Strategies Survey

51. 51 Global Intranet Strategies Survey

52. 52 Conclusions  the intranet is still in its infancy  the intranet is moving towards the individual  senior management has a stronger role to play in the intranet Global Intranet Strategies Survey

53. 53 Making Intranets Meaningful “Usability rules the Web... He or she who clicks the mouse gets to decide everything.” -Jacob Nielsen

54. 54 Articles  Metrics for knowledge and content management by James Robertson http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_metrics/index.html http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_metrics/index.html  Employing Strategic Content Management for Successful Intranets by Hank Barnes http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200106/cm_06_06_01a. html http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200106/cm_06_06_01a. html  Developing business focused content and applications from Melcrum Practitioner’s Guide to Managing Intranets and Portals http://www.vigorat.com/killerappsvigorat.htm#contentappdev# contentappdev http://www.vigorat.com/killerappsvigorat.htm#contentappdev# contentappdev References

55. 55 Articles  Tools for Assessing Website Usage by Scott Anderson, Terri Willard, Heather Creech and Deborah Bakker http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2001/Web_evaluation.pdf http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2001/Web_evaluation.pdf  Global Intranet Strategies Today & Tomorrow Survey, Summary of Results by Jane McConnell http://netjmc.com/engl/survey06summary.html http://netjmc.com/engl/survey06summary.html  Looking through the Portal by Philip Weiss, Communication World, May-June 2007  Making Intranets Meaningful by Jane McConnell, Communication World, May-June 2007 References

56. 56 Usability Web Sites  www.usability.gov  www.useit.com  www.usableweb.com  www.intranetinsider.com  www.humanfactors.com  www.upassoc.org  www.userdox.com References