I’ve been asked (told really) to project manage an intranet site for our colleagues. Site will contain work related documents for different system users plus links to external sites.

Now I like using websites and I have my favourites but I’d like to knwo what the best sites are out there in terms of user friendlyness and ease of use. I want to keep it simple, uncluttered and the site will be used by people who may not be computer literate.

The site will need some sort of tab structure to take colleagues into different section and eventually to a document folder. It does need to have some layers in there.

So people tell me what web sites work for you please. Thanks.

Think all the big players should have reasonable websites – the more complex the proposition the more tricky they are. Always forund Amazon to be fairly simple to use, or indeed Wiggle…

One of the best out there is apple.com. Simple navigation. good Visual hierarchy and imagery.

There are a lot of areas that come into play when designing an effective site/layout

Information architecture, user needs, business needs, Accessibility, usability, etc etc

What i’m trying to say it what might work for a book store might not work for an intranet. There are different user and business needs to take into account.. {gets off soapbox}

Look here: Jakob Nielsen – useit.com

May be a bit academic, but he is the daddy for usability.

Strongly disagree re: Amazon. Design has changed little in the past 10 years, stuff is in multiple categories and the search is weak. And try doing something specific to your account settings. Each bit is tacked on by a different drunken stoned developer.

Doesn’t stop me buying from them, though.

Personally, I consider the BBC News website to be the easiest to navigate.

My favourite is also the BBC News site. Preferred the old style but used to the new one now.

Also take a look here:

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2786.asp – Though I actually find Flickr quite horrible to use. Took me ages to find the upload photo function 🙂

If you’re after a book, this is a good one:

Don’t make me think

Why does the site “need” a tab structure? We’ve often found in usability trials I’ve been involved with some people don’t ‘get’ tabs – you are falling into the classic trap I see over and over – people see something they like and try to shoehorn their requirements into using it – this STW site doesn’t use tabs, just a nice simple “Home” “Forum” “The mag” “Blog” “Trail guide” “Shop” top nav which could easily translate (without knowing yor requirements) into something like “Marketing” “Sales” “Support” “Health & Safety” “Expenses”….

Personally a nice clean navigation should avoid some of the need for tabs.

Sit down with a bit of paper/speadsheet and list all the branches you need to drill down.

If it’s for non-computer people just go with the simplest thing.