The ten best-designed intranets of 2018 have been unveiled by usability experts Nielsen Norman Group (NNG). Three winners come from Europe and seven from North America. The winning companies include pharmaceutical giant GSK from the UK, Polish energy company PKP Energetyka SA; and the UN World Food Programme which is based in Italy. North American winners include the American Medical Association, Delta Air Lines, and eBay.
The average intranet team consisted of 14 core members (which could comprise full- or part-time employees as well as external staff). Team sizes ranged from three at Canadian utility company Capital Power, to 22 at AMA and eBay. Three of the winning teams had seven or fewer members. The winning intranets served organisations of widely differing sizes, ranging from 1,000 users at AMA to 21,000 users at eBay. Both these organisations had a core intranet team of 22 people.
Eight of the winning organisations called in external agencies and consultants to assist in a wide variety of project deliverables, including content creation and editor training, information architecture, persona creation and visual design.
According to NNG, Intranet development timelines are getting shorter, with an average of 14 months for the winning companies. Faster development strategies, such as Agile are contributing to shorter times, as do continually improving website development tools. Two of this year’s winners used ‘intranet-in-a-box’ solutions that were quickly deployed in 7 and 10 months, respectively.
The winning intranets were chosen through an expert review, based on design and usability, from an international field of submissions. More information here.