Digital Transformation from the Inside Out

Good IA, by contrast, results in:
• People easily finding what they need.
• A clear hierarchy of information.
• Changes to the organisation structure not requiring the entire site to be re-architected.
• Authors knowing exactly where to place content.
• Any given information taking no more than three clicks to get to.
• A structure that is intuitive to new starters.

or every minute spent organising, an hour is earned.”
Benjamin Franklin

Good Search results depend heavily on the quality of the content being searched: “Junk in, junk out,” as they say. So if you have multiple copies of the same file with different names, out-of-date or incorrect content, and no approval process for critical documents or pages, you can't expect a perfect Search experience.

Some key principles to follow with Digital Workplace designs are to:
• Give content appropriate weighting, so that the important information clearly stands out.
• Include space so that the pages aren't too crowded.
• Avoid including too much content, and keep it short: remember that people scan rather than read onscreen.
• Use colours and brand elements appropriately.
• Create visual balance on each page, keeping in mind image sizes and their proximity to both text and to each other.
• Use design elements consistently, so people immediately understand what each element represents.
• If you're using SharePoint, make it look less

For this reason, it's better to store files in document libraries, and link to them in your conversations instead.

Customised Search: You can create a custom Search page to search specific data, then display the results in a particular way.

How many Search Centres you need: Ensure you approve any new Search Centre via the Governance panel (see Chapter 16 for Pillar 8 - Governance).

Search Scopes: You can specify where search results will come from to make content more relevant, and exclude results that users don't need. For example, you might want the search results to only come from the main Digital Workplace, rather than from Team Sites.

Any Search Scopes: List any Search Scopes you already have, and design an approval mechanism for creating new ones.

Any Search Refiners: Set a limit for the number of refiners you'll create - I suggest no more than 20 beyond the default ones. Review the existing refiners regularly to ensure they're still meaningful, and ask people if they're sufficient.
• Data Sources: Define where your data will come from, and try to keep key information on SharePoint. (SharePoint can search other repositories of information.)