Notes from 45th International STC Conference
Anaheim, California, May 17-20, 1998

An Intranet for a Small Universe:
A Hands-On Workshop for Communications Professionals

Alice Jane Emanuel
Montreal, QC, Canada

Abstract: This workshop is designed to address some basic aspects of creating an Intranet site for a documentation department.

• Note: 16-page handout available... in hard copy form only. Give me a call (or e-mail note) and I'll send it to you. It includes a limited but very useful bibliography of the books the presenter has found most helpful for Web page design.
• Workshop emphasis will be on process rather than product. The principles of Web site planning and development can then be applied to each individual content situation.
• Web site design is a team process.
• Maintenance is a critical part of an Intranet Web site. This requires a dedicated Webmaster. Some departments rotate this responsibility (e.g., 3-month "tours of duty") because of the workload involved.
• The Intranet site should be treated as a serious deliverable in its own right.
• Archiving and maintaining product documentation is a central thrust in a Publications Department's Intranet site. This workshop did not extend to the larger role our Communications Department plays in terms of employee communications, public relations, proposals, and other communications functions.
• Working within this limited focus, the team I was on came up with the following key elements for an Intranet site for a Publications Department. The objective was to provide technical information internally within a software company.
   
• Product documentation (manuals)v
• Technical updates
• Product updates
• Feedback
• "Meet the Department": products, services, personnel bios/pix
• Templates and style guides
• Jump page: references, internal and external links
• Search engine
• For a small company, the "splash page" can be eliminated in the interest of functionality; the user goes directly to the main menu. The site still has an identity and a motif, however.
• Politics: Providing search-engine access to the internal "Bug Report" would help Customer Service, but might be opposed by Engineering.
• A good, functional, professional Intranet site can not only serve the company but also raise the department's profile and burnish its image.
• My team came up with a Home Page motif of a document inside an open looseleaf binder. The tabs on the outside of the facing pages were hot links to the major sections within the site, and the Table of Contents, printed on the pages themselves, provided redundant verbal links to the same destinations... simple, yet effective. The submenus were each 2-page spreads with some graphic elements; for the next layer down, the jumps went to pages that looked like individual sheets of looseleaf paper that had been removed from the binder.
  
  Note: We had a graphics specialist in our group who did a nice job of sketching this concept on an easel. Stop by if you'd like a look.
• Interactive form: Amazon.com set the standard; it can be used as a template.
• An exhaustive needs analysis up front expedites usability testing at the back end. The site should be tailored to user needs, platforms, and capabilities from the get-go. There should still be a beta test with a multidisciplinary user group that spans the major user populations within the company.