Observing the User Experience Mike Kuniavsky This is a book I definitely enjoyed reading. More importantly, it provides a practical and pragmatic perspective on how to research user needs, in the context of a broader user-centred design process. I would certainly recommend it to anyone new to the field of usability techniques. The book focuses on a number of key user research techniques: user profiles focus groups usability testing surveys card sorting log file analysis For each of these techniques, details are provided on how to setup and conduct the activities, as then analyse the results. Tips and examples are

This week I was at the Act-KM conference on knowledge management, held in Canberra. Sitting listening to the presentations, and talking with my peers, something really struck me: A number of people are conducting what I would call "needs analysis" activities, including myself. A wide range of techniques and approaches are currently being used, including: James Robertson (Step Two Designs): reviews focused on the intranet, based on stakeholder interviews, expert reviews and workplace observation. Ends up identifying issues much more broadly than the intranet, including organisational-wide cultural and process problems. Robert Perey (Knowledge Index): conducts knowledge reviews builds around complexity

At Caloundra City Council, the Customer Service Officers (who staff the front desk and call centre) have come up with a great way of keeping their intranet up-to-date. It's called the buddy system, and it works something like this: Volunteers within customer service are partnered up with key staff within the different business units. They then discuss how the arrangement will work, including who will do what, when contact is made, and who updates the intranet. The customer service staff then take the initiative, and keep in touch with their assigned buddies, to find out whether there are changes or

I've just finished my first day at Caloundra City Council, up here in sunny Queensland. As ever, it's tremendously interesting to learn about a new organisation, and the unique challenges facing it. Already, the project plan has shifted somewhat. Instead of spending the coming two days working through an expert review of the intranet, I'll be devoted soley to stakeholder interviews. This makes a total of five full days consisting soley of interviews, in response to a desire by the project sponsors to involve all the key people (which is not a bad goal, by any means). This time around,

Just before my week away fishing, I started with a new client, a NSW Government department who are implementing a new intranet. They have all the tools, including a top-tier CMS and search tool. What they are not sure on is the best way to proceed with the very difficult task of addressing intranet issues, so I was called in as an "on-call expert" to answer questions, and help out as required. From my perspective, this is a great little project, as it gives me exposure to some interesting challenges, without getting too bogged down in actual implementation. This is

I had an opportunity to talk with a good number of the participants at the recent Marcus Evans website and intranet conference. By the end of the two days, I think that many were pretty overwhelmed. It didn't help that a number of the presenters talked about spending literally millions of dollars on intranet, website or CMS projects, and getting very little in return. The web designers heard a lot about the critical importance of culture, people, and change management. The communications people heard a lot about the need for a content management system. The net result was a lot

A lot of useful information came out during the Intranet Peers in Government forum last week. One of the topics discussed was staff directories. There are some impressive systems out there, capturing a lot of useful information about staff. Based on the details identified during the forum, here is my expanded list of what you might consider including in your staff directory: full name nickname ('also known as') phone number fax number mobile number pager job title section and department e-mail address postal address photo 'reports to' projects hobbies e-mail group branch homepage job function official roles on leave languages

I summarised the role of an intranet manager in a recent report I wrote for a client. The list ended up as: promoting awareness and use of the intranet developing an intranet strategy liaising with intranet stakeholders setting appropriate intranet standards and guidelines reporting to senior management on the status of the intranet allocating intranet budget and resources coordinating IT projects related to the intranet What are people's thoughts about this? Is this a useful list, and is anything missing?

I was at an organisation this morning, talking with them about how they plan to tackle their intranet redesign project. All very interesting. During this conversation, a couple of ideas occured to me. One of which is the following: Intranet redesign projects should aim to: Address intranet issues and limitations This often involves fixing up the homepage, search, and overall site structure. In otherwords, usability and information architecture. Make the intranet better meet goals This includes both strategic and tactical goals, which must reflect the overall organisational direction. User needs must also be met. Typical projects may include establishing disucussion

The starting point for our recent Intranet Peers in Government forum was a discussion of possible intranet goals. Here is what the group brainstormed (in no particular order, and fairly unedited): Provide a reference tool for staff Target information to audience Achieve business improvements Provide best practice examples Establish corporate identity Support geographically isolated staff Communicate information consistently Support business processes Provide a common access point Reduce information overload (e-mails, etc) Provide information self-service Support skills sharing Support networking Reduce workplace costs Reduce information dissemination costs Improve decision making Improve public image Give access to centralised source of information Reduce