How to Design Intranet Portals for Maximum User Adoption

Simply having an intranet isn’t enough to spur user adoption. You need your employees on board.

If you’ve made the decision to roll out a corporate intranet, you’re likely wondering where to start and how to structure it for maximum benefit. The last thing you want to do is design and implement a massive intranet platform that is never fully adopted by members of your organization.

We’ve helped countless organizations design and implement corporate intranets through our Office 365 SharePoint Online Services, and have come up with some tips to ensure your intranet is properly designed for maximum user adoption.

Keep mobile devices in mind when considering widespread adoption

With more people accessing online sites from mobile devices, your intranet needs to be mobile-friendly in the same way as your corporate website. Designing an intranet for mobile devices is no longer an optional request: it’s a requirement. If your remote workers are handicapped by your mobile intranet you’ll most definitely curtail widespread user adoption.

Ensure user adoption is always the primary focus

You may have built a beautiful intranet site using a top-of-the-line platform, but this doesn’t necessarily guarantee user adoption. Use some of the following tips to help make your intranet a success.

Avoid forcing user adoption at first

It’s best to make intranet usage optional at first, with gradual incentives towards adoption. For example, you can begin to send email announcements that link users to the intranet site for additional details. Begin putting new announcements on the intranet to encourage employees to regularly check the site.

Introduce gamification

It may sound like a cliché, but if you can make the intranet experience fun, it can boost adoption. Depending on the intranet platform you adopt, there may be gamification functions built in that allow you to run contests, polls, and quizzes to encourage user participation across the company.

Ensure the intranet is a vital resource

To encourage user adoption you need to develop a resource that is essential to the daily duties of your employees. Examples of this could be adding your company directory to your intranet as well as a company calendar so employees will visit the site daily to keep up with various aspects of company life.

Make sure to choose the right intranet platform

There are large numbers of business intranet products to choose from, so it’s incredibly important to choose a solution that will meet the needs of your organization now and in the future.

At MessageOps, we have helped a variety of companies both big and small design and implement successful intranet solutions through our comprehensive Office 365 SharePoint Online Services. No matter your company’s needs, we have a solution that will work well to ensure your company can collaborate across departments, time zones, and even continents. Request a demo from our experts today.