Today people are connected to a wider variety of devices than ever. Optimizing websites to be platform and device-agnostic should be a primary concern — both for public-facing websites and for internal intranets. Employees expect their work portals to be available and functional no matter what device they’re on.
The following are top myths to avoid of when building a responsive intranet.
Responsive Design Is An Add-On
Far too frequently, responsive design simply a line item on a feature list. Instead of adopting responsive design because it’s the latest must-have, consider how the responsive intranet will help to solve your business’ needs. Responsive design is not a buzzword but a core principle that should guide the design of your intranet solution.
As a basic part of the package, for example, sales professionals in the field should be able to access sales information and other relevant intranet resources via their mobile devices.
Responsive Design Trumps Content
Counterintuitive as it may seem, effective responsive design does not start with design at all. First your time and energy should be expended on building content. After all, it won’t matter how many devices it can optimally be viewed on if the content they need is not there.
You should devise an effective content strategy before devoting any effort to responsive design — and that strategy should include a robust information architecture and content development plan.
Responsive Design Will Fix Usage Issues
Technically speaking, developing an intranet with responsive design is no different from standard responsive web design. To understand what content and architecture is needed, you have to know what users need.
A good starting point for doing this is determining employee usage patterns for the intranet. If a particular HR section or collaboration functionality is popular with employees, designers should position their respective navigation items for easy, immediate access — no matter how the site responds to different devices.
Responsive Design is Uniform
Although responsive design implies a consistent, streamlined experience across devices, it does not mean that experiences are identical.
One way some designers approach this is to simply “design for mobile.” Mobile devices are the top way most users access the internet these days, but designing an intranet for the lowest common denominator (e.g., mobile) fails to take advantage of responsive design’s key strengths.
By downgrading the responsive design of an intranet just to achieve uniformity, you severely limit the benefits of adopting a responsive design in the first place. Responsive design doesn’t mean that the user experience needs to be uniform everywhere — it just needs to be consistent.
Certain elements, such as videos, large banners or graphics, do not scale well on a mobile phone. Effective responsive design will alter these features when device type and size limit proper rendering of certain elements.
A well-designed responsive intranet may, for example—
- On laptop: Feature a rotating main graphic on the homepage and a three-column layout
- On tablet: Switch to a two-column layout
- On mobile devices: Become a one-column layout without the homepage graphic
Responsive intranets, like their responsive public website counterparts, offer consistent — but not identical — experiences across devices when possible.
The Truth About Responsive Intranet Design
In short, regardless of whether your employees are using computers, smartphones or tablets, you should develop your intranet to be constantly and consistently accessible — without restrictions on time, place or device.
Take advantage of responsive design to provide consistent, reliable web experiences across the board that help solve real business needs and deliver engagement.
Learn more about turning your intranet around by downloading our free e-book, Designing A User-Centered Intranet For SharePoint Online.
