content findability and discoverability on modern intranets ......modern intranets modern intranet...

10TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ABOUT MODERN IT TECHNOLOGIES

Content Findability and Discoverability

on Modern Intranets

@katjajokisalo


Thank you Sponsors #ThriveITconf

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Evening event sponsor

Material

Media

http://www.racunalniske-novice.com/


Who am I?

Katja Jokisalo

Senior Consultant, Partner @ Sulava

MVP (Office Apps & Services) | MCT

[email protected]

@katjajokisalo

mailto:[email protected]


Content Findability and Discoverability on Modern Intranets

Modern intranet has a flat and flexible structure, multiple supported usage scenarios, and broad spectrum of content editors with different skills and mindset. It's more and more important to leverage a proper information architecture in order to keep your intranet valuable and efficient to use. Luckily there are plenty of technical improvements offering help as well.

In this session we'll walk through (with theory and examples)• basics of planning and implementing good information architecture• structure and navigation on modern SharePoint intranet, hub sites, mega menus etc• metadata and audience targeting• what affects findability and how to improve it• ways to make it easier to discover new and important content• how to keep content up-to-date and structured

Come and learn how to improve content findability and discoverability on your Intranet!


WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

It's not up-to-date

Way too many and irrelevant search results!

I can't find the content I'm looking for

I wasn't informed about

the changes

I don't have time to browse the

intranet


QUICK FIXES!(and what's wrong with them)

I just download everything I need to my computer

If I need to find out, I'll ask someone!

I email it and post it on the front page so that

they will notice it

integrity – are they using the latest or correct version of this information?

information overload –no difference between need-to-know and nice-to-know

Chinese whispers – many different truths available

support overload – self-service is usually quicker and more efficient


WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

How to plan an intranet information architecture

How to offer "additional paths" to the content

Ways to improve content search results and keep contents up to date


INTRANET IA





WHAT IS INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE (IA)?

1) Organizing content

2) Findability (and usability)


WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

Users and needs

Contents

Technology


INTRANET PLANNING PROCESS

5 Hubs6 Hub navigation

7 Site contents

11 Layout 10 Page contents

13 Additional paths 14 Landing pages 15 Update alerts and processes

1 To whom – and why? 2 Roles of the intranet 3 Contents and responsibilities

4 Main areas = sites

9 Metadata

12 Language and style

8 Local navigation


ORGANIZING CONTENT IN SHAREPOINT

Structure Site (collections)

Lists and libraries

Folders

Navigation Hub navigation

Local (site) navigation

Views (in lists)

Properties Metadata Graph dataTarget

audiences


HIERARCHY --> NETWORKS


WHAT IS A HUB SITE?

• Hub is the way to connect multiple sites which belong to same context

• It's just a tag or property of a site• there's no "hub site" template

• register / unregister existing site

• any kind of site can be registered as a hub (even classic ones)

• max 2000 hubs per tenant

• Other sites can join the hub• one site can only join one hub

• hub site can't join another hub (no sub-hubs)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/planning-hub-sites

HR team site

Project X workspace

IT

Training portal

Finnish site

IT team

About us

Unit A intranet

Steering group

Intranet root

Fun @ work

HR

Benefits

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/planning-hub-sites


WHAT IS A HUB SITE?

HR team site

Project X workspace

IT

Training portal

Finnish site

IT team

About Us

Unit A intranet

Steering group

Intranet root

Fun @ work

Benefits

HUB

HR

• Sites joined in a hub share:• Hub navigation• Look and feel (color theme)• Content roll-up scope• Search scope

• Hub join does not affect permissions!


WHAT AFFECTS SITE STRUCTURE?


THREE LEVELS OF INTRANET COMPLEXITY

1) Compact (less than 300 pages, one content editor group)

Just one site, all the pages in same pages library, three levels of navigationYou don't have to hub your site – but it might be useful to have extra navigation row for example for external linksNo news categories (except with metadata) or following

2) Normal (~ 300-3000 pages, main sections have their own content editors)

About 5-10 sites (intranet hub + one site per main section)Every site plans its own structure and navigation, max three levelsIntranet hub is the "root site" or "front page site" and other sites join the hubOne level of hub navigation (links to main section site landing pages) + external links if needed

3) Complex (more content or multiple sub-intranets)

Tens or hundreds of sites and many hubsLanguage versions, Country or Unit sites with their own landing / home pages – for example Group / Global intranet, Finnish intranet, HR hub, Business Unit X hubMany (bad :)) options to plan hub navigations and content roll-upsMost likely needs some customization


NAVIGATIONS

Local (site) navigation• Different content in every site, "context

navigation"• Way to move around inside one main

area or topic

Hub navigation• Global – same content is visible all the

time in every site• Way to move from main area (site) to

another inside the intranet• Can offer other links as well

• other hubs, external systems etc

Common for both navigations• Max 3 levels• Can (and must) be edited manually• Two layouts: css and megamenu (only available in

communication sites)• Items are either links or just headers


ADDITIONAL PATHS





WHERE WOULD YOU PUT THIS?

Info video for team leaders: how to review and accept hour reports from your team members in time management system

• ”I think it should be in HR site (path HR > Contract > Working hours)”

• ”I would look from Guidances”

• ”Because of the target group I would place it in Manager's Toolkit”

• ”It should be listed in Videos”

• ”I'd say it's an IT document (path IT > Apps and Services > Time management)”

ONE HOME, MANY PATHS!

topic

topic

content category

target audience

media type


ADDITIONAL PATHS

1 Manual links

2 Content rollups

3 Multichannel

4 Search

= Ways to discover content without using global / local topic navigation


1/4 | MANUAL LINKS

• Guiding forward• usually on landing pages

• Hero, Quick Links, Link, Call to Action, Image

• Related content & More information• links on content pages

• three main ways; on text, after text, right column

• Always available• hub navigation and footer


2/4 | ROLL, ROLL, ROLL IT UP!

Content roll up is a great way to make it easier to discover new and important contentAdd a web part on a page (or page template) and configure it to...

• filter items

• example: show all the files with Type: Form and Category: HR

• "Pre-configured advanced search results"

• show personalized content

• contents targeted to specific audiences

• Graph-based suggested content

• my recent documents or sites

• highlight what's new or relevant

• updated or new pages and files

• 'You may also be interested in' web part

• Most viewed (all time) or Trending (last 14 days) content


METADATA & AUDIENCE TARGETING

• User-driven metadata = "additional navigation path"

• Target audience is special kind of metadata• audience is an existing security group in your tenant

• no dynamic groups :(

• it is applied manually by content editor• can be applied to pages and documents

• by default it only affects SP Start page and mobile news

• you can also configure content roll ups to show targeted content• web parts supporting audiences: news, highlighted content

(no events :()


CONTENT ROLLUP TOOLS

• Out-of-the-box web parts

• News and Events

• suggested, relevant, updated (Activity) etc

• Highlighted Content

• Swiss army knife on modern SharePoint!

• new KQL query allows the same functionality than old Content Search WP

• PnP Modern Search

• use this instead of Highlighted Content if you need refiners, search box or custom template


AI, PLEASE SAVE US!

• We're shifting from user-driven metadata to automated content processing• less filling in, more curating

• Microsoft Graph is the main player here• who are you (manager, colleagues, groups and teams)

• what do you do (which pieces of information you read, edit, like, share)

• What do we have already? What's coming?• Delve, of course + "suggested for you" parts

• new "You may also be interested in" web part in page templates

• Project Cortex


3/4 | MULTICHANNEL

• Multichannel marketing = using multiple distribution channels to reach consumers

• Proactive – push content (usually news or changes) to the users

• newsletter to email

• Reactive – let them use the content from other platforms

• tab on Teams


MULTICHANNEL TOOLS & IDEAS

• Intranet News to Yammer or Teams

• Teams connector or Flow flow in Power Automate

• deploy your own Intranet News app on Teams

• Email Newsletter

• manual

• automatic (later this year)

• Intranet contents as a tab on Teams

• important guidance

• relevant links or rollups (landing pages)

• IntraBOT!• Remember SharePoint mobile app!


FINDABILITY



Ways to improve content search resultsand keep contents up to date


STRANGER THINGS AFFECTING FINDABILITY

Skills

Headings

Usage

Language

IA andstructure

Search configuration?

Office document templates

Graph base data must be valid (eg Manager)

Promoting content increases usage > better ranking in search

Navigation, additional paths, rollups, cross-page links etc

Headings, title slides, document metadata!

Silos are not always bad

PermissionsAD

How to use scopes, refiners and (*)

Wording, terms and acronyms – do the users and content speak the same language?

Use H2 / H3 (anchor links)


CONFIGURING MODERN SEARCH

MICROSOFT, WE ARE WAITING!

Awesomeness coming! [Ignite]


KEEP IT FRESH!

1.

Be exclusive!

Intranet is not

everything for

everyone

2.

Decentralize

decision making

and

responsibilities

3.

Offer easy to use

(& anonymous)

feedback

channel(s)

4.

Configure

automatic

reminders


THANK YOU

content findability and discoverability on modern intranets ......modern intranets modern intranet...

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