Design matters? It sure does!

Someone quite well known in the intranet world recently said that design matters less and less on intranets.

I have to say I wholeheartedly disagree.

We launched new design templates across all our four Operating Companies' intranets in the UK earlier this year. It was a fairly short project and didn't cost a fortune. The design launch was accompanied by a quick poll where we asked people if they liked it. 172 people completed the poll, and although it was nice to see that the majority voted positively it was actually more useful to read the comments that some people left with their vote.

I divided the comments into categories and its easy to see what makes people tick:

• Colours 34%
• Navigation 6% (considering that the new design didn't alter the navigation it was interesting that some people felt it had improved!)
• Browser 6%
• Other, incl. general well done comments and questions 54%

Several people said it was good to see that the company wants to move our systems on with the times - as one person said "Facebook and the BBC do it all the time, so why shouldn't we internally?"

Intranets are here to serve the business, it's for the employees. Employees are interested in design. So design matters. I'm not saying it's more important than all the other important things (like content and navigation) but it is important.

Rant over.