BT has just updated its intranet homepage as the first phase of improvements to the functionality and overall user experience. We have focused on the functions rather than the design first.
You can see the before and after slides.
BT’s intranet is over 14 years old. The BT homepage has been a key driver to encouraging such high use of our intranet. Users can choose which page is their homepage. The majority choose the BT homepage and most users visit it daily if they haven’t chosen it as their homepage.
The key changes are:
· we removed duplicated links
· information and services links are now together under common headings in the renamed ‘Essentials’ area. Previously they were separated, which meant information about a service was on a different listing page to the service itself
· we’ve added the latest articles from the user-generated content sites – podcasts, blogs & BTpedia. This shows an endorsement of these relatively new knowledge management channels, raises their profile and hopefully encourages more people to publish what they know
· key business links section has been added – this is for important links which were previously in the right hand column; research on usability recommends that your main links are on the left hand side of your page
· the A-Z, available from any Intranet site via the global navigation bar, is now more comprehensive, containing more links from the BT homepage collection
· world news has been added, and world clocks, to reflect the fact we are global
· we have an extra advertising slot for Intranet news. This will help us manage the many requests we get for advertising on BT homepage and allow us to keep important banners visible for longer
· Collaborate page has been added to highlight the various platforms for team working and knowledge sharing.
The initial feedback has been positive from users. We will survey users in the next few weeks for their views while introducing the next stage which will cover:
· Get the headings converted to links
· Change image branding at the top
· Use ‘popular searches’ report to review the links and see if we should be adding more in – or see if we can get another RSS feed featuring ‘what people are looking for now’.
· Run the next user survey and ask ‘what would you like to see on BT Homepage?’
· Review what the role of BT Homepage is in a web 2.0 world, especially if MyBT (our personalised portal) takes off and we can link to it.
Tags: bt intranet, homepage, usability, value
January 7, 2009 at 2:41 pm |
The thing that jumped out at me was……..wait for it…….the share price is half the price it was last year.
January 7, 2009 at 2:53 pm |
LOL
Some things are sadly beyond even my influence on BT’s intranet!
January 7, 2009 at 5:59 pm |
Hi Mark
thanks for sharing the thought process and screen shots. I’m curious about you retaining the InTERnet search box – its takes up a prime navigation spot and I’d expect it to create confusion with the site search. What’s the rationale behind it?
January 8, 2009 at 9:42 am |
Sam,
Thanks for your comments. BT has always given a list of internet search engines people can use on a page that is part of the BT Homepage site. BT formed a company with Yahoo! called BTYahoo! which involves BT gaining a % of revenue from certain clicks used by people in BT. So, we have made this more prominent because it creates revenue for BT and it replaces the list of other search engines that existed. People can still use other internet search engines but the only one now listed on our intranet pages – homepage, search engine, etc – is for BTYahoo! The strapline ‘Use BT Yahoo! and BT receives 70% revenue share on all searches’ on our internal search engine isn’t repeated because of space.
Research has also shown that users think the next column to the right of the navigation menu list BTYahoo! is shown in is THE prime spot. That’s where we have the top stories.
Of course if future research shows this isn’t what users need then I will change it so it does……….as BT has always done.
I hope that helps explain the background and the rationale for the change.
Mark
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