Intranet Information Design

The involvement of a marketing and communications firm in an intranet project can bring the skill of the information design to an internal development team. Information design bears great influence during the early development stages of an intranet. We have found that designers (whether they are web designers or not) are more sensitive to information design issues than other members of a development team. The balance that designers bring to the information design process is especially important when designing an intranet because IT staff often have a disproportionate influence on intranet design. While the role of IT is critical to an intranet, their role as information designers is not always as helpful. This is due to the fact that IT people spend their days designing data systems. The way data is organized and designed to work efficiently in a network schematic will color their view of how the site should be organized. A logical network or database scheme is not usually the best way to organize something from a human perspective.

Much more can be read about the process and skill of the information designer in our book Client/Developer Wars The second half of the book delves into the subject of information design.   next >