An important point to keep in mind, is that employees don't go to an intranet solely for the purpose of reading corporate press releases...they go to perform useful tasks. Consultants simply need to ask employees what they do on a day-to-day basis, illustrate routines as end-user workflow diagrams, and create opportunities in taxonomy, design and architecture that facilitate employees' primary tasks.
Information Architects use a form of behavioral research called "contextual inquiry" to better understand the daily work routines of corporate end-users. Contextual inquiry involves interviewing end-users in their place of work. That doesn't mean a conference room...it means at their desks, in their cubicles, and in their offices.
What are some benefits of contextual inquiry?
1. Contextual inquiry enables IAs to take notice of their end-users' files, folders, and email "inboxes," in order to document trends in information organization (ultimately informing intranet taxonomies).
2. Participants feel more at ease, and are able to better recall daily work routines, when they are interviewed in familiar work environments. Usability labs and conference rooms often make participants nervous and disoriented, causing them to speculate rather than recall specific information and tasks.
3. Participants can walk their researchers through previous intranet and web interactions, exposing issues and potential opportunities.
Luckily, corporate intranets are intended to satisfy specific needs. That makes them easily engineered to achieve those needs. Whether it is facilitating primary, work-related tasks, educating and training staff, or providing vital documents, engineering a better user experience on a corporate intranet can be achieved through primary research.
Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab
