Tips for Modern Communication Sites

2. Tips and Best Practices for Modern Communication Sites Susan Hanley sue@susanhanley.com @susanhanley THR1084

3. What is your organization’s scarcest resource?

5. site’s

7. Team Sites and Communication Sites Team sites Communication sites Department Initiative, campaign or event Team Share work with organization Project Community of practice Extranet (Partner, Customer) Training and policies Committee (Planning, Executive) Updates and reports Communicate Collaborate Get work done privately Share outcomes broadly

9. Lots of sites to tell different stories Create a team site for each project or administrative team Create a communication site for each topic, function, department, or initiative

10. Your site MUST have a story!

11. Know your readers! Who are they? What are they looking for and what to they want to do? What are their top tasks? What terms makes sense to them, and what is technical jargon that only makes sense for your function? How do they find information? What do they want to learn?

12. Example: Talent & Org Development How will we measure success? Increase the number of people who participate in leadership development programs

13. Plan your story flow and outcomes

14. Navigation Plan your sites with a combination of pages Navigation Categories of information for the journey Decision point for the reader: which path? Destination End point of the journey Presents information to read, print, download Lots of detail? Add an ancillary page Destination

15. Plan your pages so that they can be scanned

16. Write your page stories upside down …

17. … to optimize for scanners Follow the inverted pyramid model when you write Write scannable text Highlight key words Meaningful sub-headings One idea per paragraph Keep it short Use hyperlinks for ancillary content

18. Use images to help your story You’re going to need a LOT of images You still need to OWN them! In the hero, not every tile needs an image Sources for great free images https://www.pexels.com/ https://pixabay.com/ https://unsplash.com/ https://everypixel.com/ https://stocksnap.io/ https://pikwizard.com/

19. Image Tips Use an image on all News pages Your image doesn’t have to be in the banner – any image on the page is fine Crop or re-size images to a size that works on the page BUT, if you crop the image on the page in the image web part, the cropping works only on the page itself – not for the image “roll up” in the News web part Crop carefully!

20. Help your pages make friends

21. Page metadata is magical! Connect related pages Show pages of the same type Filter news based on topic or category

22. All pages are important, but some pages are more important than others

23. Your home page provides a front door News Category/Topic Overview Frequently Needed I need to … Top Tasks or My Tasks Site Owner/Contact

24. Navigation provides a roadmap for content discovery At the top on communication sites (on the left on team sites) Multiple levels to provide context and new MEGA MENUS!! Helps organize the story and allows readers to explore non-linearly Services Products Activities Audiences Focus Areas or Functions

25. Navigation labels matter! Specific – tell visitors exactly where they are going Comprehensive – no area left behind; tell a complete story Familiar – don’t invent a new term Concise – short Front-loaded – Company Information not Information About our Company Clear – mutually exclusive (but it’s OK to duplicate sub-links if it helps discovery) Targeted – no teasing

27. Planning template tiny.cc/CommSitePlanningGuide Tool for conversation (but includes tips and best practices) Once the site is configured, documentation should focus on using the site, not maintaining the design Please adapt the recipe!

30. Remember … • Create the right type of site for your purpose • Think about your users – it’s ALWAYS about the user • Look before you leap; plan before you jump in • Every page tells a story – make sure that your story works! • Make your pages scannable by writing upside down and following consistent patterns • Help your pages make friends • Think about governance

31. Susan Hanley sue@susanhanley.com www.computerworld.com/blog/essential-sharepoint susanhanley www.susanhanley.com

32. Page Layout Tips

33. One column One column layouts are often used in News articles Or when you don’t have a lot of content for a page or where the content tells a “top to bottom” (linear) story A one column section provides a good way to provide introductory information on a page that might have more content shown below the introduction in multiple columns 

34. One-third right You will probably use this layout most often – “classic” internet page Show related content Divide content when one part needs more real estate Provide ancillary information to the main purpose of the page

35. One-third left Introduce a topic and then provide more detail List contacts by topic FAQ list

36. Two Columns Don’t use for an entire page – break up with multiple sections Use to show a comparison between two options or topics Great for training pages – use the left column for instructions and the right for images

37. Three Columns Show comparisons of equal length Show three images or videos side-by-side

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