Further reference links from ‘Task-based intranet content’ My book ‘Task-based intranet content: a step by step guide to user-centred design’ gives multiple external references for your onward research. Since they can’t be linked to from a print copy, to make it easier for you than Googling them all, here’s a list of links chapter by chapter. Thanks to Lisa Riemers for the suggestion! Chapter 1. Planning 1.2 Timeline External guidance: Google spreadsheet rough exampleExternal guidance: How to make a Gantt chart in Excel, Officetimeline.com Main stages of the project development External guidance: GOV.UK guides to agile working 1.3 Case studies GovIntranet demo site GovIntranet demo siteGovIntranet help site Intranet Diary Oxford City Council, Intranet Diary postKew Gardens, Intranet Diary postThe Forestry Commission, Intranet Diary postNesta, Internet Diary postCayman Islands Government, Intranet Diary post Barnardo’s Inside.Barnardo’s intranetInside.Barnardo’s: The intranet without walls, Barnardo’s Medium article Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) CIPR Inside Citizens Advice Making data policies easy to understand, Citizens Advice article on Medium Co-op Co-op colleagues intranet Devon County Council Inside Devon intranet Nielsen Norman Group yearly intranet design report 10 best intranets of 2020 NNg article 1.4 Reading and resources Design, strategy and research books Content design, Sarah RichardsContent Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson and Melissa RachDon’t Make Me Think, Revisited, Steve KrugJust Enough Research, Erika HallReadability Guidelines Handbook, Sarah Richards and Lizzie BruceThe Ethical Design Handbook, Trine Falbe, Martin Michael Frederiksen, Kim AndersenTop Tasks, Gerry McGovernWhy you need a content team, and how to build one, Rachel McConnellWriting is designing, Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfe Content design articles by Lizzie Bruce Content workflow essentials: timing, skill-sets and collaborationDesigning with content: how using content patterns can helpMigrating content: strategies for successThe content designer role: a definition and ideal way of workingWhy do you need a content designer?17 tips to get content people in the room, for non-content people Content guidelines Guardian and Observer style guideGOV.UK A to Z style guideGOV.UK design systemReadability Guidelines wikiSocial model of disability, on Scope website Specifically on intranets Intranet Diary blog, from Luke OathamIntranet blog posts, by Sharon O’DeaIntranet Design Annual: 2021, from Nielsen Norman Group10 Best Intranets of 2021: What makes them great, from Nielsen Norman GroupIntranet Now conference website, from Lisa Riemers and WedgeEssential Intranets, a book by James Robertson13 Intranet Best Practices, from Colibo Code GovIntranet WordPress theme Luke Oatham’s ‘govintranet-free’ GitHub repository (Agento Digital supported clients have access to a premium version.) GDS design system UK Government Digital Service design system Chapter 2. Communications None Chapter 3. Design 3.2 Putting it into practice user-centred language and principles, W3.org website 3.3 Definitions of user-centred design Interaction Design Foundation User Centered Design, Interaction Design Foundation website United States government User-centered design basics, Usability.gov website World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative UCD in a sentence, W3C website Chapter 4. Users 4.1 Types of users, their contexts and environments Your users Venn diagram 4.4 Problems give you user needs Journey mapping External guidance from a user behaviour consultancy: Journey mapping 101, Nielsen Norman Group. Chapter 5. Information flow 5.3 Updating your database Adding categories External guidance: case study, Gerry McGovern’s crowdsourced classification for Covid-19 World Health Organisation content 5.4 Universal intranet topics Topic tags Govintranet demo site Chapter 6. What’s live? 6.2 Audit for user needs External guidance: Lizzie Bruce GatherContent article on migration success strategiesExternal guidance: Lizzie Bruce Medium article in praise of the content audit Chapter 7. Scheduling 7.3 Pair-writing with stakeholders External guidance: Content Design London Readability Guidelines wiki 7.5 Logistics Training External guidance: GDS free online content design training course Chapter 8. Creating content 8.2 Images External guidance: Luke Oatham’s tips on creating your own intranet stock photo library 8.4 Content patterns External guidance: Lizzie Bruce GatherContent article on content patterns 8.5 Writing task and guide content Tasks External reference: view various examples of tasks on the Govintranet demo site. Visit demo.govintra.net, go to How do I?, then choose any of the tags, for example “travel”. Guides External reference: access various examples of guides on the Govintranet demo site. Visit demo.govintra.net and enter the word “guide” into the site search box. 8.7 User test the content External guidance: Erika Hall Just Enough Research Chapter 9. What’s missing? 9.1 News and directory External guidance: GovIntranet gets a people profile and staff directory, Intranet Diary 9.6 Online learning External guidance: online learning from edX.orgExternal guidance: online learning from coursera.orgExternal guidance: online learning from FutureLearn Chapter 10. Navigation 10.1 Example navigation User testing External guidance: Treejack tool on Optimal Workshop website Chapter 11. Launch None Chapter 12. After live 12.4 Content calendar Populate the calendar External guidance: GatherContent editorial calendar templateExternal guidance: GatherContent content calendar About the book “This will become the go-to resource for intranet projects” — Robert Mills Create content that makes it faster for people to find what they need on the intranet than from a colleague. Learn user-centred design as you progress through this practical, stage by stage guide. Generally, people want information about a specific thing, fast, when they visit an intranet. They need it in as little time as possible, so they can get to a meeting, or enjoy their lunch break. This book outlines processes that put into practice these 3 essential principles for user-centred intranet content: 1. Content reflects a staff need for it.2. Information is easy to find.3. Style, tone and language is optimised for users with little time to read and absorb content. Lizzie Bruce pours her experience of designing intranet content around staff needs for UK government into 100 pages of advice and techniques for creating usable, readable content. Includes: list of universal intranet tasksglossary of user-centred design termsproject “shopping list”timeline plannertips for stakeholder buy-inlinks to case studies and blogs Every organisation planning an intranet redesign needs this book. 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‘Task-based intranet content’ book: now published My practical, step by step guide to user-centred intranets is now published. It’s the only book out there on creating task-based intranet content, and is written by a DCMS award-winning intranet content lead and GovIntranet content creator. “Really good stuff from someone who knows her intranets.” – Tom Loosemore, digital transformation consultant at Public Digital, ex-GDS, ex-BBC. “This will become the go-to resource for intranet projects” – Robert Mills, independent content and communications consultant. Buy the book You can buy my book in print or as an eBook. The print version has additional shipping costs. Buy in print from Blurb, £15 + shipping Buy Apple eBook, £14.99 Buy Kobo eBook, £15 About the book “Create content that makes it faster for people to find what they need on the intranet than from a colleague. Learn user-centred design as you progress through this practical, stage by stage guide. Generally, people want information about a specific thing, fast, when they visit an intranet. They need it in as little time as possible, so they can get to a meeting, or enjoy their lunch break. This book outlines processes that put into practice these 3 essential principles for user-centred intranet content: 1. Content reflects a staff need for it.2. Information is easy to find.3. Style, tone and language is optimised for users with little time to read and absorb content. Lizzie Bruce pours her experience of designing intranet content around staff needs for UK government into 100 pages of advice and techniques for creating usable, readable content. Includes: list of universal intranet tasks glossary of user-centred design terms project “shopping list” timeline planner tips for stakeholder buy-in links to case studies and blogs Every organisation planning an intranet redesign needs this book.” About the author Lizzie Bruce is a content strategist and user-centred design training creator. Firmly committed to user-centred, accessible and inclusive design, since 2003 she’s applied her skills in multiple sectors: public to property, legal to leisure, art to eco, finance to fashion. Clients have included UK central and local government, RNIB, Great Western Railway, John Lewis and University of Cambridge. Lizzie led Content Design London’s award-winning Readability Guidelines project, writing the guidelines, wiki and handbook content, and is a regular contributor to content publications. She’s spoken on content at conferences and meet-ups in Brighton, Budapest, Canberra, London, Melbourne, Sydney and Tokyo. Thank you Thanks very much for your interest in this book, and thank you in advance for buying it if you do. It’s for anyone involved in an intranet redesign project, particularly those new to user-centred design practices, but should also be useful to people who haven’t previously worked on a task-based intranet. Thanks again for everyone’s encouragement during my writing of this new book. It’s dedicated to all the user-centred design advocates, content strategists and clear language experts whose work in the field have paved its way. Further reference links External further references are marked in the second edition of the print book (amber cover) with a square bullet. Direct links are listed on this website: access list of further reference links. Where to buy You can buy in print or as an eBook: Buy in print from Blurb, £15 + shipping Buy Apple eBook, £14.99 Buy Kobo eBook, £15 I may create an audio version or put the book up on more platforms, and will update here if that happens. It won’t coming out on Amazon, due ethical concerns about their working practices.
Early access to ‘User-centred design for intranets’ webbook by Ko-fi.com donation We’ve opened early access to ‘User-centred design for intranets: a practical guide for task-based content’ as a Pressbooks webbook. You can get the all-chapter access passcode by making a ko-fi.com donation of £6, the price of a London coffee and croissant. This is to make the book content and advice available as soon as possible for whoever needs and wants it quickly. Scroll to find out how. Ebook and print formats to follow soon The eBook and print on demand formats will follow later in the year. We are still collecting feedback from selected early readers, so the content may change slightly in the final print set, published version. How to get early access Include your Twitter handle on your Ko-fi donation message, or after your donation send us a direct message on Twitter @cakecontent, as we’ll need to send you the webbook all-chapter access passcode privately. We aim to do this within 24 hours of your donation, and will check for new orders at around 6pm each day. We’ll try to make it possible for everyone who donates on Ko-fi.com for the webbook preview to get a discount code for the eBook but can’t guarantee that will happen. So, if you don’t need it straightaway and want to hang on for the eBook please do, it should be out by the end of November. View the chapter outline on the Pressbooks website. Micro-reviews welcomed! Feel free to tweet your reactions about our intranet content book if you take up the early access webbook offer. Please tag us, we’re @cakecontent. Or if you fancy writing a longer review on your blog or Medium we would of course be very grateful, they will help spread word of this user-centred design intranet content resource more widely.
‘User-centred design for intranets’: an update on Lizzie’s new book First, thank you so much for your interest. The new intranet content design book by Lizzie Bruce is called ‘User-centred design for intranets: a practical guide for task-based content’. The book content is finished, and is with a couple of early readers at the moment. An exciting time. We plan to first release it as a Pressbooks webbook. Access to webbook chapter content will initially be available through a Ko-fi.com donation. For an idea of what to expect, please preview the book content structure at: intranetcontent.pressbooks.com It will take a little longer to set up the other formats. Here are some more details. E-book, print The book content should in future be available as an ebook on Apple, Kobo and Kindle. The print version will be print-on-demand, from Blurb or IngramSpark. PDF We had minimal interest in a PDF version, and will be offering the webbook or ebook format instead. Audiobook We’d also like to make the content available as an audiobook, ideally narrated by the author. Thanks for your patience: this is the first time we’ve managed the publishing of a book. Until the next update.
