Session Abstract

When intranets fail, the issue usually isn’t the technology—it’s confusing navigation, poor organization, and design that works against users. Unfortunately, these are example of the norm, not the exception. In this full-day, hands-on workshop, we take a real site designed on examples we have seen in our lives as consultants, diagnose, design the fix, and resolve those issues. We'll model exactly how we approach intranet redesigns: audit, plan, fix, and extend, all against the same sample intranet, all in a single day. Topics Covered • Evaluating intranet usability • Copilot-readiness as part of a standard usability audit • Information architecture: task-based vs. department-based navigation structures • Site architecture: page templates, flexible sections, and site structure • Extensibility options from JSON formatted views to custom SPFx solutions • Demonstrating live how clean metadata and content structure improve Copilot's answers By the end of the day, attendees will understand how to review their existing intranets and leave with key understanding of how to improve the design and architecture of their intranet and how they can extend its capabilities to make it more usable. Key Takeaways • An understanding of key user experience methodologies and how to use them to evaluate your intranet • How to turn findings into an actionable plan across information architecture, metadata, and site architecture • How to rebuild navigation, site columns, and content types to enhance usability and AI readiness • How to create engaging pages using flexible sections and modern SharePoint tooling • How to use tools like PnP Modern Search and JSON formatting to improve usability of your intranet • Options for extensibility including SharePoint Copilot Apps, Adaptive Card Extensions, and SharePoint Framework solutions

Derek Cash-Peterson

Derek is passionate about building intuitive and useful applications, focusing on the design and user experience as well as the development. 

 He has over 20 years of industry experience building customized intranets, extranets, and public facing websites based on the Microsoft stack. He specializes in front-end development and visual design/branding of SharePoint, Teams, and Microsoft 365. He brings a design eye to a developers world along with skills in information architecture, content architecture, and collaboration strategy skills.