-
Launch User-Centric,
Participatory Research: As a first step, begin to gather user input — and
develop field skills — with interviews, card sorting exercises and scenario
observations.
-
Use Available Metrics to Set the
Baseline: Site analytics from the current intranet tell you who uses it,
for how long and what parts are avoided.
-
Analyze Intranet Help Desk
Records to Identify Top Problem Areas: Doing so provides direct insight
into the main hurdles to wider adoption.
- Interview Users to Discover Needs: However, keep in mind that people often describe how they would like
to work rather than how they actually do.
-
Observe and Record Users to
Study Work Behaviors: It's the best way to understand both particular work
habits and uncover design flaws that remain hidden from the experts on the
design team.
-
Engage Users to Reveal
Organizational Habits and Priorities: For example, card sorting helps to
discover how they organize, access and manipulate information.
-
Create Personas to Guide Design
Decisions: Personas provide key information about users' goals, attitudes
and behaviors that is required for effective interaction design.
-
Deploy Ongoing Usability Testing: A spectrum of users should repeatedly test paper prototypes, wireframe
mockups and coded development interfaces in contexts that encourage them to
give utterly frank feedback.
-
Identify "Carrots" that Can Help
Wean Users Off of Old Methods: You can encourage change by presenting users
with clear improvements to their current work habits.
-
Conduct a Heuristic Test: It's
difficult for intranet team members to "forget" their knowledge of the system,
so heuristic tests are more valuable when conducted by outside evaluators.
TIM WALTERS,
Ph.D., is a senior analyst at Forrester Research, where he serves information
and knowledge management professionals. For more information, visit
www.forrester.com.
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