Jun 12, 2025
4 Secrets to Designing an Intranet People Actually Love
The company intranet isn’t usually the place people choose to spend their time. Often, they can feel more like an inconvenience than a go-to web space. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Imagine if your intranet could feel like a cosy community hub, a digital home that your team genuinely enjoys exploring. With a little design facelift, you can elevate your intranet from a clunky tool into a welcoming space that your people naturally gravitate towards for information and connection. Here are four simple but practical ways to do it.
1. Dashboards that make life easier
Most intranets are overwhelming spiderwebs of information, data and policies. If you want to make your intranet a space that people actually want to visit, you have to embrace the art of the dashboard.
A great dashboard should follow a ‘less is more’ approach. Focus on clarity and simplicity by highlighting only essential data with clean visuals and intuitive layouts. Your text should be minimal, and (please!) drop the corporate jargon in favour of clear, understandable language. Your employees will thank you, and they'll be far more likely to come back for more.
Don’t forget the importance of white space! Adding in spacers throughout your dashboards will give people a chance to breathe and make the content easier to digest.
2. Design for mobile use from the get-go
Teams today are always on the move, whether at home, commuting, doing school pick-up or working from a beachside café in Ibiza (we wish). If your intranet isn’t mobile-friendly, you're putting a limit on its usefulness.
That’s why designing your intranet for a mobile-first experience is a must. This means ensuring navigation menus are minimal and easy to tap, important information is displayed at the top (avoiding the endless scroll), buttons are large and well-spaced, and any graphics are lightweight to keep the loading time nice and quick.
The search function is your make or break when it comes to mobile use. Make sure you use keywords effectively in your headings and content so people can easily find what they’re looking for!
3. Personalisation makes a big difference
Generic intranets quickly become background noise which people tune out if the content isn’t directly useful. Want to know the secret? Personalisation!
By curating personalised intranet dashboards to focus on specific roles, departments or projects, you’ll make it possible for people to log in to see a news feed that highlights exactly what’s relevant, or receive announcements that feel handpicked just for them. This will make them feel more valued, and their interactions on the intranet will be much more meaningful.
Start small by personalising your intranet homepage to feature a targeted welcome message or tailored quick links based on users’ roles.
4. Create community with social tools
Want to create an intranet where people genuinely interact and collaborate? It’s all about the social tools, baby!
By integrating social features like discussion forums, real-time chat and collaborative project spaces, your intranet will become a dynamic hub where teams can exchange ideas, solve problems together and celebrate successes. These tools encourage participation, turning passive users into active community members.
Set up simple, regular prompts or fun questions in discussion forums to spark conversations and invite interaction. Why not get started with a weekly "question of the day"?
Give your intranet the glow-up it deserves
Getting started with these four design ideas will transform your intranet from a daily chore into a space people actually love visiting. Curious what this could look like for you? Get in touch for a free ideation session!