How to design an intranet people actually use (and keep using)

You know the drill. Companies will invest five or six figures on shiny new intranets only to discover that they struggle to attract daily users. We’re here to make sure you don’t do that.

Traditionally, intranets have been used for broadcasting company information, largely one-sided top-down comms that resemble shouting into an abyss where few users are actively paying attention to what’s happening. If you’re looking to design an intranet that is less of a digital filing cabinet and more of a bustling hub of activity and community, you’re in the right place.

The psychology of user adoption: Why intranets succeed or fail

Consider which apps, websites and media keep you engaged the most. We’d guess that it’s not the ones which look like they were built in the late 90’s.

The ones that are most engaging are most likely the ones that look slick, are easy to navigate and tailored to our own preferences. The exact same principle applies when we’re looking at designing an intranet.

Nobody has the time to be trawling through endless pages of unnecessary, irrelevant information to find something. It’s unproductive, and often if we can’t find something in around 3 clicks, we’ll give up.

We need to consider ‘What’s in it for me?’ when designing an intranet. It needs to be easy to adopt, it needs to provide a useful purpose and be a trusted source of information. When what you see on your intranet is relevant to your job, location and interests, you’re so much more interested in what’s going on. Of course a store worker doesn’t care about the head office fire drill. And it’s unlikely that HQ needs to know about roadworks outside a store in a different city.

Ultimately, the ability to find what you need amongst information that is tailored to your circumstances, takes precedence over everything. Cosmetic appeal is undoubtedly a pull factor but the structural design of your intranet is the first key step.

Five intranet design best practices

Whether you’re creating something from scratch or refreshing an outdated platform, here is the failsafe checklist of how to design an intranet and get it right, first time.

1. Structure navigation around employee tasks and needs, not department silos

People know what they want to do when they visit the intranet, but when it’s not easily signposted, they retreat. Imagine the frustration when all you want to do is book time off but you have to find a request form in the depths of an HR jargon-filled folder.

Make it simple. Structure site navigation around task-oriented terms that anyone can understand. User testing methods might help to ascertain which terminology works best and how to structure your site in a way that makes sense to the average user.

You might make discoveries that are quick wins with a big impact, such as re-naming your ‘Human Resources’ area to ‘Pay and benefits’ or ‘Annual leave requests’ to ‘Book time off’.

A multitude of quick wins can really add up, which is why it’s crucial to bring employees on the journey. Insights from different pockets of the business will help you understand what resonates. After all, they’re the people you want to use the platform, so it needs to work for them.

2. Build the intranet homepage design for action, not static news

There are a multitude of features and functionalities that you can incorporate into your intranet homepages in this day and age, so there are no excuses to not follow intranet design best practices.

We don’t want a screen that people stare at for a moment and then move on from; we want to excite and invite users to participate and really absorb what’s happening in the organisation.

The intranet homepage is your most valuable real estate, so treat it with respect instead of clogging it down with generic information or outdated content that is no longer useful.

Top tip for intranet homepage design: Divide your homepage into three distinct zones.

Above the fold, when people first land on the homepage, they want quick links to their most commonly used tools, personalised workflows, key updates at-a-glance and a search function.

In the middle, they want localised updates, whether that’s per site or region, and opportunities to share peer-to-peer recognition for a job well done.

As they scroll further, they’re looking for resources, company updates, social and community feeds. Essentially - the nice-to-know or less urgent stuff that was once at the top, can sit further down for easy reference further down the line if needed.

3. Optimise for the "three-path" findability rule

Your workforce is diverse. The way they search for information will be as varied as they are.

So when it comes to designing an intranet for maximum adoption, you need to make sure that it’s intuitive for everyone.

The three paths you need to make accessible for your users include:

• Search: A prominent, central search bar that actually works (and uses natural language processing)
• Browse: A clean, clear and predictable global navigation menu that works across devices
• Direct: Quick links that are either tailored to the most-visited links or personalised by job type

Side note: You should also enforce strong governance from day one. Make sure all content has review and expiry dates so that when people are looking for information, they can be confident that what they do find is correct and is the most recent version.

4. Design for the mobile & frontline workforce first

It could be the case that a large majority of your frontline workforce doesn’t work at a desk and will be accessing the intranet via a mobile or tablet device.

If your intranet design only looks good on a laptop screen, you’re alienating a significant proportion of your internal audience, meaning intranet user adoption will fail amongst these colleagues.

Top tip for mobile-friendly intranet design: Make sure you implement a responsive layout where sidebars and mega menus automatically collapse into neat hamburger menus. Emphasize large, thumb-friendly tap targets and high-contrast text to optimize readability for workers on the move.

5. Personalise the experience to cut through the noise

It sounds like a buzzword but it really is true. Information fatigue kills engagement. A sales rep in Berlin shouldn't see daily lunch menu updates for the warehouse canteen in Dallas. No employees should be seeing last quarter’s special offers that are now expired.

Another crucial component to design an intranet that people will actually use is to create a genuinely personalised experience for each user. Often, they might not even notice that their feeds are personalised to them, but when you transition from an intranet that has been a free-for-all, they’re definitely going to appreciate it.

To really cut through the noise and guarantee intranet user adoption, use dynamic, audience-based targeting. Deliver tailored, location-specific news, mandatory reads and language defaults based on the user's role and region, and watch that engagement climb.

How brands are creating intranets with high employee adoption

Hays Travel completely overhauled their intranet with governance and streamlined employee communications as the goal. They achieved a 62.5% improvement in information search efficiency and 10% of time regained each month for retail teams with streamlined news.

ZIGUP went through a full rebrand following a merger and took the opportunity to revamp their intranet. Realigning the growing workforce led to an increase in engagement from 40% to 75%, and colleague confidence in the growth ambitions of the business rose 41% between the completion of the merger and their employee survey in 2025.

Burger King UK launched their employee app as a mobile-first intranet design project. They created a personalised onboarding journey, streamlined processes and gave people a clearer sense of belonging and purpose. This resulted in a 32% reduction in employee turnover and a 40% reduction in new starter drop out rates.

The launch and relaunch playbook: Driving user adoption

Your intranet design project doesn’t end on launch day. In fact, it’s only just getting started!

You’ve put in the work and adopted intranet design best practices, but you also need to make sure that everything you’ve implemented works in real life.

A lot of this will come down to education. While your site may be super-intuitive, there will always be a fraction of the workforce who require a little more hand-holding than others. Equally, there will be some who are much more forthcoming with feedback - positive and constructive - and you should ensure there is a clear, structured process for people to share their initial thoughts and comments to help you refine over time.

When transitioning users onto your new platform, whether it’s brand new or upgraded, here is a 3-step strategy to maximise intranet user adoption from day one.

Recruit champions

Establish a peer-to-peer network of intranet ambassadors from across the organisation who can test functionality, new features and act as a buffer between their department and your intranet managers, answering questions throughout rollout.

A “soft launch”

Once your champions are recruited, they’re the ideal people to help you run a soft launch, but you can also invite other small groups of users to test out navigation and ensure that everything appears as it should for different audiences. It’s much easier to make tweaks when there are a smaller number of users, versus switching things around once all users are trying to figure it out live.

Incentivise initial use

Give people a reason to get excited about this new platform. Try hosting a digital scavenger hunt where employees must find specific policies or answers to win prizes, which instantly teaches them how to navigate the platform.

Summary: Key takeaways

So, there you have it. Everything you need to know to design an intranet that people will actually use. Here are your key takeaways:

Function and utility are the first steps

Step one is to design the intranet so that it makes sense and serves a true purpose for your people. Step two is creating that community and sense of ‘FOMO’ that brings people back.

When employees log on to complete a task (like checking payslips or booking a holiday); keep them there with engaging, high-quality community updates.

Jargon be gone

Speak the direct, everyday language of both your frontline and desk-bound workers. Ditch the corporate jargon once and for all.

This will also make it so much more accessible for your global colleagues if they are using translations within the platform - the simpler the language, the more everyone understands.

Governance is golden

Even the best intranet design breaks down when outdated documents accumulate. Keep it neat, tidy and set automatic expiration dates on every single page to maintain search trust.

If you have to assign responsibility to certain people in different departments to manage it, do it!

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Q: How do we prevent our intranet search from becoming useless over time?
A: Remember: governance is golden! We cannot stress enough how important it is to set up clear content ownership with review and expiry dates. When people change roles or join/leave the business, ensure content ownership is assigned to the right people.

As soon as your search results pull up three different versions of the "2022 expense policy" years after it was relevant, employees will stop trusting the system.

Q: How much branding should we apply to our intranet design?
A: Stick to two key brand colours and a neutral accent as a guide.

Dazzle people with your intranet design and functionality rather than complex background patterns or gradients that damage readability. Be sure to also choose clean, sans-serif fonts for comfortable screen reading.

Q: How do we measure if our new intranet design is actually succeeding?
A: It can be tempting to watch the views climb and climb in those first few weeks since launch, but try not to rely purely on vanity metrics and instead track high-value indicators. 

Look at daily active users, understand search patterns and monitor any reduction in internal IT support tickets to get a 360-degree view of intranet user adoption and behavioural change over time.

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