I am redesigning and restyling an intranet the first time.
I looked at the Nielsen-Norman articles on the web (free version) and while I came across many papers talking about the major steps to take when redesigning or designing an intranet from scratch, I lack specific material for benchmarking and I didn't manage to find free reports.
What similar (and shareable) material would you recommend?
Any hints on how to do benchmarking would be highly appreciated.
Some of my resources on the topic:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-mistakes-web-design/
http://www.usabilityfirst.com/about-usability/website-redesign/
I would say that the intranet sites present several challenges over internet web design. Often you may be asked to add elements that reflect desktop applications. My opinion is that your should add as many unobtrusive constraints as possible and then stand back. It's easy to get mired in constant updates and design changes.
As for best practices, in my experience, the best redesigns are those that really meet the needs of the people that have to use them everyday. Make sure you do your user interviews, task analysis, and observations. New and/or improved features will be a mark of success as well as the happy users.
Martin White's list of intranet books and reports features 19 useful resources you might like to consider.
For free benchmarking, sign up for the Worldwide Intranet Challenge.
