Improving SharePoint home page design ideas is crucial for motivating employees and increasing productivity.
An engaging homepage facilitates worker collaboration and aligns teams to business objectives. This article outlines tips to optimize your SharePoint intranet homepage.
Provide Clear Navigation
Without simple navigation, employees get frustrated trying to find resources. This causes disengagement over time.
To avoid this pitfall, utilize these practices:
- Menu: Use a clean global menu for consistent access to apps. Group options logically by department, project, task type or priority.
- Search: Include a prominent search bar to enable quick lookups. Provide indexed metadata so results are accurate.
- Quick links: embed links to frequently used sites directly on the homepage. Common destinations include departmental SharePoint sites, forms, policies, and HR platforms like Workday and Salesforce.
Here’s an example global menu with grouped apps, quick links, and a search bar:
| Global Menu | Quick Links |
| Home | Workday |
| Departments | SalesForce |
| IT Helpdesk | Equipment Reservations |
| Knowledge Base | Room Bookings |
| Projects | COVID Policies |
| Search | New Hire Forms |
This simplified layout removes clutter so workers can rapidly navigate to required items.
Highlight Essential Apps
Every organization uses specific apps daily to operate. These likely differ between departments.
Rather than cramming all apps onto the homepage, only showcase the most essential ones. Further apps can reside inside departments or projects.
For instance, highlight apps like:
- Microsoft Teams
- SharePoint sites
- Intranet pages
- Benefits portals
- Learning management systems
- Collaboration tools
Determine which apps workers in different areas utilize constantly. Then embed site links, icons, or eye-catching banners for those solutions atop respective team homepages.
This targeted promotion ensures employees access vital applications quickly.
Promote Community
The homepage presents a perfect chance to bond teams.
Dedicate space to foster social connections through:
Employee spotlights: showcase outstanding performers. This boosts engagement, transparency, and motivation.
Corporate events: Promote upcoming activities like fundraisers, parties, and networking gatherings. This nurtures culture and relationships.
Wellness initiatives: advise fitness challenges, preventative health programs, ergonomic tips, stress reduction techniques. This shows the company cares.
Recent news: Curate a dynamic news module highlighting company achievements, product launches, and corporate social responsibility efforts. This makes employees proud to work there.
Social components help workers feel recognized, informed, and invested in business outcomes, ultimately driving retention and referrals.
Maintain Brand Identity
Never underestimate the power of branding. Consistent visual identity across the intranet reinforces what your company represents.
You’ll notice popular internet sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon use the same fonts, colors, and logos on all pages. This familiarity evokes connection and trust.
To establish similar recognition, implement these practices:
- Logo: Insert a resized version in the header. Utilize an SVG file to prevent pixelation on high resolution devices.
- Brand colors: Use brand palette colors from the logo for backgrounds, fonts, tables, and dividers.
- Branded imagery: Incorporate custom graphics, illustrations, or photos that represent your culture.
- Typography: mandate standard company fonts for all headings, body text, and labels.
Maintaining a steady brand presence across the homepage, department sites, and elsewhere boosts affinity and unifies teams.
Conclusion
Optimizing your SharePoint homepage is crucial for engaging today’s digital workforce. Follow the SharePoint home page design ideas in this guide to streamline navigation, highlight essential apps, enable community, and sustain branding.
Remember, the homepage marks the entry point into the company’s digital workplace. Utilize these best practices so it motivates employees rather than hinders them.
This creates immense competitive advantage through improved productivity, collaboration, and innovation across the business.
