The Law Firm Intranet

Intranet design has come a long way in recent years, especially with the advancement of social networking tools, user-centered design, and mobile access. If you’re interested in what other intranets are doing and keeping your intranet fresh and usable, you should read Nielsen/Norman Group’s post and report on the 10 Best Intranets of 2010.

The 10 winning intranets for 2010 include:

• Enbridge, Inc., a leader in energy transportation and distribution in North America (Canada)
• GE, a diversified technology, media, and financial services company (US)
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), a nonprofit medical research organization (US)
• Huron Consulting Group, a consulting company (US)
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a NASA Center that manages robotic spacecraft exploration of Earth, the solar system, and the universe (US)
• The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit organization managing four federally funded research and development centers (US)
• SCANA Corp., a Fortune 500 energy-based holding company (US)
• Trend Micro, Inc., a leader in Internet content security (Japan)
• URS Corporation, a leading provider of engineering, construction, and technical services for public agencies and private sector companies (US)
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart), a retailer with more than 8,000 retail units under 53 different banners in 15 countries (US)

Jakob Nielsen also lists some interesting highlights of the report in his Alertbox posting on January 4th:

• median company size among winners was 6,350 employees
• average team size this year was 14 people, which is 27% higher than the average team size in 2006
• 30% of the intranets had special mobile features
• social network features on winning intranets include social features for employees as individuals, as well as workgroup support and other features that encourage work-related connection
• trend of CEO blogs on better intranets
• winning intranets encouraged users to try out new and improved features
• 40% of winning companies designed intranet features with the explicit goal of addressing unexpected emergencies

While the Alertbox posting has some of the high-level findings, the nitty gritty detail is, of course, in the full report. It’s available for download for $224 (single license), and at 449 pages with 198 full-color screenshots it promises to be well worth the nominal price tag.