Talk given at EuroIA in Edinburgh, september 2013.

1. ;) A sort of an introduction to what intranets are all about, isn’t it?

2. A few practical things
learned in intranet
projects
Jonas Söderström
EuroIA 2013 • Edinburgh
A few practical things that might be of use to you, if you’re in an intranet project.

3. @jonas_blind_hen
#intranets
#euroia13
twitter

4. 1994-
1977-
I was once an Editor and an Art Director ... but since 94 I’ve been working with the (then early)
web and it systems. I’ve done a lot of intranet projects ...

5. 2013
I’m now focusing on the dismal state of internal, corporate, business systems - the frustrating it
systems countless people have to use at work. Like this. And yes, this is from 2013 - not from
1995.

6. stupidsystem.org
I occacionally write about it at this blog, stupidsystem.org.
It’s not just from a design / UX / IA perspectiv - I try to take a broader view.
Bad it systems are a major cause of stress in the work place; and as such a real health issue. Bad
it systems have also lead to a widespread ”comman-and-control”-culture in the workplace; in
extreme cases leading to a new ”digital taylorism”.

7. Intranets
Internal news
ToolsSocial features
Archives
Libraries Databases
But let’s talk about intranets.
The term ”intranet”has always been a bit hard to define.
It’s most often a smorgasborg of content, tools, services.

8. Digital workplace
It’s now common to speak about ”The Digital Workplace”instead of ”intranet”, and there are
some very good reasons for that.
On the other hand, a ”digital workplace”can actually be a lot of things – like this driver’s seat
of a common shuttle bus. It has no less than 11 digital devices, each with a separate screen -
and of course different ways of interaction, and information representation and structure.
Here we se a new, daunting task for IAs – managing the collection of different digital devices.
And this is not going away; there will only be more and more. If you’re interested, this example
is on the blog stupidsystem.org.

9. Intranets
are tricky
So let’s just stick with the intranet label for this presentation. Here are a few things I’ve learned
from intranet projects, that I hope might be useful to you.
Intranet’s are tricky. They’re made up of two of the strangest ingredients there is:

10. Organisations and people.

11. Be prepared for...
So if you enter an intranet project, here are a few things to be prepared for.

12. The Hidden
Civil War

13. IT Comm.
Intranet projects are often the focus for internal politics.
I’ve had so many cases where we’ve been asked to do a project - and then only some time into
it, we’ve realised that there was a full civil war between some departments over the issue. And
that we had been brought in just for that reason and placed in-between those warring
factions. It could be it and communications, for example – or even others.
That’s a tough spot - so be aware that you might end up there. You’ll have to decide: should we
negotiate peace or a truce - or do we take a stand? In any case, expect a lot of flak.

14. Another thing that seem to be endemic to organisations.
It’s very common that there’s one department, that think they are so special that they don’t
have to play by the same rules as the other.
They EVEN claim, that they’re more important than the organisation as a whole! ”Our brand is
bigger than the entire organisation’s!”
When working with the government’s intranet - it was the State Department. With the agency
for historic buildings, it was the oldest castle, who insisted that were finer than even the Royal
Castle. Whith the Disaster managment authority, it was the department for Chemical risks - for
no clear reason.

15. Be prepared for vicious
and complex internal
politics in #intranets
projects #euroia13
tweet

16. The Pictures
Problem

17. Intranets are typically run by word people. They have little understanding for pictures; indeed,
they are often very suspicious of them. Pictures seem unclear and possible to mis-interpret.
And they’re expensive, too. ”Best not to have them!”

18. So intranets typically have
- no budget for pictures.
- no person responsible for even thinking about how to use pictures.

19. Too many #intranets
lack pictures. Convince
managers that they are
important. #euroia13
tweet
Try to explain that pictures are great tools, that they can make people understand, and that the
intranet should have both a budget for pictures and a special role responsible for pictures.

20. The Calendar
Mistake

21. ”We must have a calendar
on the intranet”
It’s very common that people say this.

22. 1 Mon 2 Tue 3 Wed 4 Thu 5 Fri
8 Mon 9 Tue 10 Wed 11 Thu 12 Fri
15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19 Fri
22 Mon 23 Tue 24 Wed 25 Thu 26 Fri
•Perth: Kickoff •HQ: Board
•Bath: Meeting
•Ayr: B-Group
•Bath: Social
They picture a module like this on the first page, and
separate pages for each day and item, and so on.
Seems legit.
Or? Doesn’t everyone have their own Outlook calendar anyway?

23. Observere
users
To find out, we turned to our core activity:

24. in the wildObserving users in their environment.

25. Did they ever look in the
calendar on the intranet?
Never.
They never looked in the intranet calendar, because all their important meetings were already
in their personal calendars.
They did USE the calendar though - but only to put things IN it.

26. The calendar
was advertising.
We’re doing
things up
here!
It turned out, the calendar was a way for people to advertise what they were doing to other
people in the organisation. For example, the branch office far away from the HQ wanted to
show the rest of the organisation ”We’re doing cool and important things up here too!”
That’s a legitimate need - but the calendar was definitely not a good way to solve it, since
nobody really looked in it.
Personal calendars could certainly have been integrated in the intranet – but again, that was
not the real problem: the problem was that some parts of the organisation felt (in general,
correctly) that they got too little attention.

27. The Journalism Solution:
Make a ”news” story
about it.
Or put in social.
What we recommended was: use journalism! Make a ”news”story about it. Or put it in the
social component of the intranet, if there is one.

28. Question every ”solution”.
Try to find the real drivers
behind every customer
requirement. #euroia
tweet

29. The Vanity Effect
So I told you people and organsations are tricky. In another intranet project, we had the
completely opposite problem.

30. University
At the university, where the departments had a lot of academic freedom, the problem was the opposite. Professors and
scientist never told the central administration when they made public appearances, gave talks to the public, took part in in
discussions.
Editors got reports about that afterwards, through articles in local media.
The central editors started to make copies of all such local stories, and send them to the professors with a kind note. Quite
often, professors where surprised that a) there had been an article about them, b) that the university knew that, and c) that
there even was something like a central communications department. Like all humans, they we’re flattered when they realised
that they had been seen.
After that, they were much more likely to tell the communication department in advance if they where going somewhere.

31. The Personalisation
Peril

32. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
”Personalisation”can mean a lot of things, but often it’s something like this managers have in
mind: matching information with users by means of metadata of both.

33. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
This user sees these published news items, documents, or whatever ...

34. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
And this sees other items.
We were brought into an organzation were they were quite angry.
”The tagging system in the CMS doesn’t work, fix it!”They were convinced there was some kind
of structural problem; like metadata not inherited properly through the system.
We doubted this was the case. We said ”we’d like to speak to the users and editors, and watch
how they work”. At first the client refused stubbornly. ”Just fix it! No need to talk to anyone!”
After long negotiaons, she agreed and took us to one of the departments. And there ...

35. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
?How
does the
tagging
of news
Lisa, 19
e3000/ Flickr
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
... we found that the working intranet editor - in charge of tagging news and documents - was
the most recent employee, lowest in rank, a 19-year old girl.
The other people in the comm dep were doing big important thing like strategy.
No one had explained to Lisa what the tagging really did. And anyway, she had very little
knowledge of the scope of the company’s business - what was important to whom.

36. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
!It only
takes
one
mistake
Location, role,
department,
country,
interestsLisa, 19
e3000/ Flickr
And it only takes one mistake from Lisa, when the user in department X doesn’t get to see the
thing that he needed to - for his trust to be broken.

37. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
?
What
did I
not get
to see
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests

38. The Filtering
Fallacy
But there is an alternative to filtering.

39. The High-Lighting
Alternative

40. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
Instead, highlight. So if these are the things that fits this guys profile -

41. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
and highlight it.

42. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
Something that can be done in several ways.

43. New budget
Tokyo office open
Gym closed
Change of phones
Location, role,
department,
country,
interests
A mistake
won’t be
such an
issue
If you’re not dealing with organisations with millions of people and vast amount of news, it is a
possible solution. We’re now generally good at scanning a stream of items - think Facebook.
Highligting would help us to find the most relevant.

44. Who will handle your
elegant solution? Make
sure they’re trained for it.
#euroia
tweet

45. The Buzzword Trap

46. Manager
interactive multimedia
socialpersonalised
drives
innovation
portal
”Personalisation”is a typical buzzword managers, in particular, will use when they describe their goals
for the intranet - and without necessarily understanding exactly what it is.
These things may be good - but managers often have inflated expectations of what they think an
intranet should be, and what it should accomplish. Like these. Lately, I’ve heard ”drive innovation”a
lot ...

47. Eole/ Flickr
.. and other high-flying words. But is it realistic?
So can anyone guess what company this might be?

48. slimmer_jimmer/ Flickr
Yes, IKEA, of course.
I was doing intranet work for IKEA.
When entering the IKEA HQ, I noticed a poster on the wall. Camers were actually forbidden,
but I managed to take a sneak picture of it - it said...

49. It’s a sneak photo, so it’s not that great, but the headline was ...

50. Design for people
And the copy said ...

51. At IKEA, the first
thing we design
is always
the prize tag.
It turned out the motto wasn’t really a secret - it was published in that year’s IKEA catalouge
(so in fact, it could hardly be more public).
But the thought was brilliant: customers are under constraints - economical constraints, and
that is where we (=IKEA) start the design process.
And I instantly realised ”Hey, I can use this!”So I brought the picture I took to the workshop.

52. Employees do have to
”buy” intranet use, but...
...what are they paying with?
When all the buzzwords were flowing in, I could turn the force of their own insight against
them, and remind them that even their own employees are under constraints. Not money,
but ...

53. Their work hours!
... their time!
Co-workers, employees, have a lot of things to do - their regular work: servicing customers,
managing the shop, running the warehouse etc.

54. How much time ...
?
So, instead of having a discussion about all the things the ”intranet”might be, we asked
them ..

55. ... should an employee spend
on the intranet each day?
How much time should a shop manager NOT spend with the customers? 30 minutes each day?
15 minutes? 5 minutes?
This proved a much better starting point for the discussion about functions and content.
Yes, you may argue that in some cases, the ”real work”IS ”on the intranet”- and it could
definitely be on screen, but probably in some kind of special application (that really sucks). But
then we come back to the definition of intranet as the sum or the parts, so let’s leave that.

56. How much time
should an employee
spend on the
intranet? #euroia
#intranets
tweet
How much time should an employee spend on his intranet or digital workplace?
It might well be that the answer is ”8 hours”, a full working day. That’s ok.
But just ask the question. Get the time budget, get the constraints.
And don’t just ask the mangers – check it with the actual users. What is their real work load?

57. jIA-jitsu
Anyway, the concept of using their own words against them is since then called ... jIA-jitsu.

58. The Sunday Edition
So a final thing I’d like to share.

59. This was a merger of two organisations, where two old intranets should be replaced by one,
new.

60. Business Impact
Mapping
We’re using a method called Business Impact Mapping, that gives a good structure for finding
out what the real goals should be - not the buzzwords.

61. Gojko Adzic
impactmapping.org
Gojko Adzic has a great book about it that I highly recommend.

62. What impact?
?
So we interviewed management and stakeholders to find out: what impact do you want from
the new common intranet?

63. Create a
common,
shared
culture
Work faster
and smarter
ImpactTwo strong desired impacts
There were two strong desired impacts: efficiency and culture.
Those are two quite different beasts. So we tried to find out, how can we achieve both those
things?

64. Two kinds of
information
Let me step back for that for a moment, and focus on the information in the organisation - the
”internal news”part of the intranet.
We could say that there are two kinds of information.

65. Simple messages ...
There are relatively simple messages ...

66. Note: Time reports
before 12.00 today!
... where the intended reaction
is direct and uncomplicated
Okay,
okay, I’ll do it
now
... like these.
”Your new parking permits can be collected at the receptions.”
”Window cleaning this weekend, move your desks away from the windows!”
Things to do rather quickly, or ignore, or perhaps just store in your head as facts.

67. Others ...
But in other cases...

68. ...when we want people to
reflect, change, innovate ...
Wait,
then we should
be doing ...
Surge in economy
in the East gives
new possibilities
... we wan’t people to think, to reflect, perhaps change their ways.
These are two rather differnet modes, two different models about messages and outcomes.
So we combined these two ideas, the two wanted impacts and the two kind of informations.

69. 2 intranets for 1
The Intranet has the usual profile
Monday to Thursday.
This is the concept we presented.

70. Nya pensionsregler
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år
före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock,
en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke
Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung
Uppdaterad rutin X-37
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Ny tillsynsmyndighet 1 juli
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
VERKTYG
Agresso
Heroma
Katalog+
Tidrapport
TJÄNSTER
Egenlön
Ärenden
Inställningar
Favoriter
DRIFT-
STATUS
STOPP 14-15
KALENDER
Skall man använda långa stycken av
Lorem Ipsum b
ör man försäkra sig om att det inte
gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på
internet tenderar att repetera Lorem
Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov,
något som gör denna sidan till den
första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
TOOLS
Economy
SAP/R3
Database
Time report
SERVICES
To-do’s
Tickets
Settings
Favorites
SYSTEM
STATUS
DOWN 8-12
Prag office opened
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
New budget
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år
före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock,
en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke
Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung
Gym closed
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Monday to thursday, we publish quick, actionable items. You just need to check the headlines,
and see if it’s relevant to you.

71. Nya pensionsregler
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år
före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock,
en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke
Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung
Uppdaterad rutin X-37
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Ny tillsynsmyndighet 1 juli
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
VERKTYG
Agresso
Heroma
Katalog+
Tidrapport
TJÄNSTER
Egenlön
Ärenden
Inställningar
Favoriter
DRIFT-
STATUS
STOPP 14-15
KALENDER
Skall man använda långa stycken av
Lorem Ipsum b
ör man försäkra sig om att det inte
gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på
internet tenderar att repetera Lorem
Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov,
något som gör denna sidan till den
första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
TOOLS
Economy
SAP/R3
Database
Time report
SERVICES
To-do’s
Tickets
Settings
Favorites
SYSTEM
STATUS
DOWN 8-12
Change of phones
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Prag office opened
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
New budget
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år
före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock,
en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke
Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung
There’s access to the most important tools ...

72. Nya pensionsregler
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år
före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock,
en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke
Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung
Uppdaterad rutin X-37
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Ny tillsynsmyndighet 1 juli
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
VERKTYG
Agresso
Heroma
Katalog+
Tidrapport
TJÄNSTER
Egenlön
Ärenden
Inställningar
Favoriter
DRIFT-
STATUS
STOPP 14-15
KALENDER
Skall man använda långa stycken av
Lorem Ipsum b
ör man försäkra sig om att det inte
gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på
internet tenderar att repetera Lorem
Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov,
något som gör denna sidan till den
första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
TOOLS
Economy
SAP/R3
Database
Time report
SERVICES
To-do’s
Tickets
Settings
Favorites
SYSTEM
STATUS
DOWN 8-12
New painting acquired
Change of phones
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Prag office opened
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt
litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och
är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard
McClintock, en professor i latin på
Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden,
consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum .
And items just moves down in the flow, like your standard Facebook page. Check what’s new,
then go on with your work - wheter it’s on the shop floor or on the computer screen, doing
invoices or whatever.

73. Nya pensionsregler
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år
före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock,
en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke
Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung
Uppdaterad rutin X-37
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Ny tillsynsmyndighet 1 juli
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
VERKTYG
Agresso
Heroma
Katalog+
Tidrapport
TJÄNSTER
Egenlön
Ärenden
Inställningar
Favoriter
DRIFT-
STATUS
STOPP 14-15
KALENDER
Skall man använda långa stycken av
Lorem Ipsum b
ör man försäkra sig om att det inte
gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på
internet tenderar att repetera Lorem
Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov,
något som gör denna sidan till den
första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
TOOLS
Economy
SAP/R3
Database
Time report
SERVICES
To-do’s
Tickets
Settings
Favorites
SYSTEM
STATUS
DOWN 8-12
New painting acquired
Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt
litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och
är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard
McClintock, en professor i latin på
Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia,
översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden,
consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum .
CEO to leave in December
Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur.
Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av
Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om
etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.
Window cleaning
Skall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man
försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i
texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera
Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna
sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.
But on Friday ...

74. The view from our new Tokyo office is breathtaking. And so are the opportunities of the
Japanese market – if we manage to give the right kind of support to our colleagues at the new
... We get this! A completely different design and a completely different content.
This is the day when we publish stories intended to create that common culture, the ”sense of
us”. Intended to make people reflect.
This is the day when it’s ok to spend 10 minutes to read, to think, to dive into it.

75. TOOLS
Economy
SAP/R3
Database
Time report
SERVICES
To-do’s
Tickets
Settings
Favorites
SYSTEM
STATUS
DOWN 8-12
The view from our new Tokyo office is breathtaking. And so are the opportunities of the
Japanese market – if we manage to give the right kind of support to our colleagues at the new
And tools are still avialable.

76. ”Friday edition”
Visual
Think
Take time
Different
It need not actually be every Friday. It could be once every two weeks, or once a month.

77. ”Weekday edition”
Fast
As little as
possible
Do your
work!
The difference is the important thing.

78. Monday through Thursday:
”simple news”are crowdsourced,
created by co-workers/part-time
editors
Editorial
organisation
It also solved the problem with resources and how to split up work, centralisation vs
decentralisation. The editors didn’t have time to do everything.

79. • Central intranet editors are responsible for
”Friday”material
• Can be planned ahead
• Professional journalists – and
photographers! - could be used
• Editors can create expectations with teasers
from the coming Friday edition
• "This Friday: Don’t miss the report on our new
office!"
”Friday edition”
And a whole new way to work for the editors: planning ahead, work with really good
photographers - and by creating expectations.

80. Channels”Weekday
edition”
”Friday
edition”
You could use the ideas in other ways.
Maybe it’s about different channels, like this.

81. Channels”Weekday
edition”
”Friday
edition”
Or this.

82. Leverage different
designs for different
content and goals.
#euroia #intranets
Did we try it?
Yes, and as the first airplane of the Wright brothers, it didn’t quite fly.
Mostly because we had a bad graphic designer, who didn’t make the difference big enough.
But the planning part worked out very well.

83. Continuous
updates
Digital media usually brings us continous updates.
Which often is a good thing.
But something is also lost.

84. RYTHM
RYTHM
RYTHM
RYTHM
RYTHM
RYTHM
Rythm is an essential concept for human work and life
- from the sea shanties
- to the rythm of the seasons
- or the day.
That’s lost when we just have continous flow.

85. Nah, I look at the intranet in
the morning at 7, then in the
evening at 5 pm. I’ve a
business to run in between!
And guess what? The users had invented their own rythms anyway.

86. My lessons learned
• Be prepared for internal tensions or strife
• Make the case for pictures, + budget, + editor
• Observe users to find out their true needs and
drivers
• Think about content types in terms of impact
• Leverage the power of different designs to
different content

87. Thanks!Mail:
jonas@kornet.nu
Twitter:
@Jonas_Blind_Hen
Site:
stupidsystem.org
Speakerdeck:
Jonas Söderström
Pelle Sten/ Flickr