We had a really interesting client meeting today. The discussions were all about leveraging the very considerable interaction and engagement they had achieved from the phase 1 launch of a Claromentis intranet. This has been very successful and has generated  considerable momentum to move on now to phase 2, building on the success achieved.

We discussed some of the Claromentis solutions for interaction and engagement – including of course the upcoming Innovate application – and one of the surprising comments was that they were initially worried that Innovate looked to complex. ‘We have to make it easy’.

The reason being that some of the users are outreaching social care workers who only received company computers a year or so ago.

How often have I heard that. Make it easy. Of course it is a focus of ours in terms of usability.

What occurred to me in the meeting today was that the most frightening thing of all for intranet users is a completely blank page. We have to guide them, give them confidence to express themselves – then they are off.

Staring at nothing is just paralyzing. The dreaded first page of a book. Micro blogging works because it is a simple, highly manageable, open space set within what is in fact a tightly constrained and structured application. It allows freedom without the capacity for procrastination. The small space for your input focuses you in a way that freedom without limits does not.

Many things will work for intranet users – giving them a blank page is absolutely not one of them.

Intranet-Extranet intranet usability