Intranet: Plan for Usefulness

The intranet must be useful in order to bring value to employees. If you know why people go to your site and what they are looking for, the next logical step is to ensure that they can accomplish this as quickly as possible. Ideally, you should perform usability studies BEFORE you launch your intranet. Okay, so most of you already have an intranet up and running. It is not too late to test what you have. Observe users, measure how long it takes for users to complete common tasks, count clicks. Establish metrics; measure where people are going, how long it takes to download or access information, etc.