Intranet Journal
The online resource for intranet professionals

Intranet Design Top Ten Intranet Design Mistakes By Vincent Flanders Mistake #1. Splash Pages. The most important page of any site is the first page (the "home page") and so it is with an Intranet. The home page should contain the most important information and the navigation scheme for the Intranet. Some designers, for reasons known but to God, create intoductory or welcome pages (known as "Splash" pages) as the home page. An Intranet is about getting information and getting it as quickly as possible. Users hate splash pages because they're a waste of time as the above example proves. Worse, every time a user goes to the home page this page is what is seen first. The only way to get to the real information is to click "Enter." I always like to tell people that Web design should reflect the real world and you don't see "splash pages" in the real world. Think about Wal-Mart. When you go to Wal-Mart are you forced to wait at the front door and watch a thirty-second movie before you're allowed to enter the store? No. Then why would you make your visitors wait to get inside your Web site? Previous Page Mistake #2 Keeping Unnecessary Design Items Author The creator of the award-winning site Web Pages That Suck and co-author of the book of the same name, lists the top 10 mistakes he's found while consulting for Fortune 1000 corporations. Hint: the image is one of them. To contact Vincent with topics you'd like to see covered in the Intranet Design Guru Column or for any other reason: vincent@flandersenterprises.com