The three-tier model of SharePoint intranets

Better reference and ‘how to’ pages by relying on research, and then three planning techniques.

Start with people’s needs before you draft a reference page; here’s how to ensure your content is useful, usable, and used.

Plan and build better reference pages across the intranet with content design principles and techniques.

The intranet should be a handbook to people’s work and careers – every reference page or guide should help the person do something, understand something, progress with a task, and ultimately help them achieve their goal.

Most of the intranet is not news, but reference material. Departments need to publish useful, on-topic pages that focus on user needs, not ‘about us’ vanity content.

See Wedge Black, intranet consultant at ClearBox, introduce how content design principles and activities can apply to internal publishing, considering reference pages, guidance, and ‘how to’ material.

Webinar: Content design for the intranet

Webinar video: The three-tier model of SharePoint intranets – Using hub sites to provide the best mega menu for audiences, not for departments.

The three-tier model of SharePoint intranets – Using hub sites to provide the best mega menu for audiences, not for departments. SharePoint Online can be a deep and dark experience, as it’s all about productivity and collaboration. But your SharePoint intranet should be light and bright – easy to get around, with clear way markers so nobody feels lost.

 

The intranet is the surface of your SharePoint stack, the top layer of your deep digital workplace. Wedge’s three-tier model brings a clear concept to SharePoint, enabling the well-governed intranet to take precedence over standalone SharePoint sites – while respecting that some people need those non-intranet sites!

 

In this short and sharp recording, Wedge will share the visuals of the three-tier intranet model, explaining the forced choices Microsoft inflicts upon us, and the best ways to provide intranet-wide navigation to tie it all together.

During the recording you’ll:

  • see the three tiers of any SharePoint-based intranet
  • learn the options for providing a true intranet-wide menu
  • compare the search scope of ‘the intranet’ versus ‘All of SharePoint’
  • likely reconsider the structure and governance of your core intranet, focusing on navigation and news.

Presented by

Wedge Black

Intranet Consultant, ClearBox

Connect with Wedge on LinkedIn.

Having managed intranets for global and regional companies, Wedge has hands-on experience of enterprise platforms and employee-focused digital communications.

As a content tactician, he specialises in writing to meet reader needs and expectations, with a focus on intranet reference pages and internal communications.

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