Digital communications: Department for Transport

The brief

In order to improve Internal & change communications and encourage the sharing of best practice, the Department for Transport commissioned independent research on the effectiveness of their corporate intranet. The results found that the majority of DFT employees thought the existing intranet, Infonet, was unsatisfactory and inadequate to their everyday needs.

We were asked to design, the new intranet and provide templates for the site.

The solution

Research highlighted that DFT employees wanted a simple, uncluttered homepage and a sense of structure, with the use of clear terminology, regularly updated corporate information and improved search facilities.

We designed a home page that featured changing imagery across all modes of transport and topical transport information

To ensure the site was user-friendly, easy to navigate and accessible, we introduced a menu bar that allowed visitors to drill down through a series of links to relevant corporate information including staff directories and local Transnet sites.

We included a site map and an improved search function, and recommended an online accessibility programme on the site for people with visual impairments, whom could choose a high contrast scheme and Ethos settings.

Neilson Norman Global Public Sector Intranets winner 2004