Portal design

See also: personalisation

Discussion articles

• Intranet portals: a tool metaphor for corporate information
  Internet portals are virtually dead, but a portal approach can tame the unruly chaos on internal company networks. Intranet portals overcome many Internet portal limitations, and might be the best hope for productivity and a unified user experience.

• Executive dashboards
  Contrary to first impression, an "executive dashboard" is not found in a CIO's car. Rather, an executive dashboard, also known as a manager dashboard, executive cockpit, or digital cockpit, is a child of what in the 1980s was referred to as the Executive Information System (EIS). These systems, and their web-based progeny, all have the same goal: bringing critical information to decision makers and improve the performance of their business.

• Planning a successful portal
  In order to improve its chances for success, an enterprise portal must be viewed a strategic investment, not just a technology solution.

• Taking a business-centred approach to portals
  "Now that the early hype has died down, it is not surprising to find that portals are not a 'silver bullet' solution to all the information delivery challenges within organisations. Like all technologies, portals have their strengths and weaknesses. These need to be well understood if they are to be successfully implemented within businesses. This article outlines the characteristics (good and bad) of enterprise portals, and proposes a business-centric approach to selecting and implementing portals."
  (James Robertson - Step Two Designs)

• Usability for component-based portals
  Usability is key when building a portal, because all of the components have to work together. And the key to good usability for component-based portals is a solid methodology grounded by the proper tools. This article covers methodology, the different aspects of a portal, tools, and a case study.

• User-centered design for large government portals
  Website design for a large federal or state government organisation can be chaotic and unpredictable. The article begins with a practical overview of challenges associated with government website design. Specific examples are provided for content description, information architecture, and interface design. Additional considerations like content management, accessibility, and section 508 are also discussed. Although written from a consultant's perspective, this article is equally relevant to internal government employees working on web initiatives.