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Effective SharePoint Page Design: A Comprehensive Guide
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SharePoint Online
Oct 19, 2022 5:10 PM

Effective SharePoint Page Design: A Comprehensive Guide

by HubSite 365 about Ellen van Aken

Pro UserSharePoint Online

Unlock the secrets to optimizing SharePoint Pages with expert advice on aesthetic consistency, structure, and user-friendly functionality.

Insights on Designing an Effective SharePoint Page

Ellen van Aken shares her experience in creating an efficient SharePoint intranet in a healthcare organization in her latest blog post. Overwhelmed by the numerous options for layout, color schemes, styles, etc, Van Aken recognises the need for certain measures to maintain a consistent look and feel. Further, she points out the importance of providing a structure while also allowing flexibility.

Van Aken contrasts her current experience with her past encounters working for a multinational company. Uncannily, most of the company's intranet redevelopment budget was spent on creating a convoluted News setup. This comprehensive setup came with fixed page templates, color schemes, etc, and was custom-made because SharePoint did not initially offer it. However, Microsoft announced the introduction of SharePoint News, a free-of-charge out-of-the-box solution soon after their elaborate setup had been launched.

Van Aken then walks us through her endeavours to keep the design and layout consistent. She details a couple of measures taken, such as the structure for formal organizational units. These units have their unique site for publishing pages and news posts. Linking to SharePoint Online can provide more detailed insights.

Van Aken explains the decision to use a single Hub site for grouping all organizational sites. This allows for unified navigation and color scheme, and roll-up of news. Furthermore, adopting the Blue theme across all hub sites ensured alignment with their style guide. Similarly, the usage of the same site icon made it clear if a site belongs to the intranet.

Another important factor was to keep the headers compact and footers simple. She also stressed on having minimal and crucial data displayed to avoid a cluttered look.

Guidelines for Flexible Features

For flexible features, Van Aken provides guidelines for writing and designing pages. These guidelines help to keep the pages uniform and in line with the organization's standards. The guidelines were formulated to limit the options for publishers and were developed into training sessions.

Some of the recommendations include a catchy, one-line title, active language, avoiding underlining text or using abbreviations, etc. Other guidelines focus on the visual aspect of the SharePoint pages- like using specific layouts, image banks, standard sizes and specific colours for text and headings.

Finally, Van Aken notes that these guidelines are not concrete and can be deviated from based on the specific requirements of a post or page. Her goal with these guidelines is to provide some consistency to SharePoint news, and she invites her audience to share their own guidelines or suggest additions.

General Importance of Consistency in SharePoint Page Design

Creating a consistent SharePoint environment is crucial for user experience. Consistency in design and layout helps users navigate pages with ease, understand complex data, and maintain focus on their tasks. Thus, even though SharePoint provides a broad range of versatile features and options, defining certain guidelines helps balance creativity and uniformity, leading to a more intuitive and user-friendly SharePoint environment.

Read the full article How do design a good SharePoint Page?

SharePoint Online - Effective SharePoint Page Design: A Comprehensive Guide

Learn about How do design a good SharePoint Page?

Designing a SharePoint Online page doesn't have to be overwhelming. A few months ago, we successfully launched a SharePoint-based intranet for a healthcare organization. The intranet comprises primarily SharePoint Pages and News, a default feature that opens a wide array of design options - from layout designs, different color schemes to stylistic font choices. However, despite this vast range of selection, we still devised approaches to maintain a cohesive look and feel.

Naturally, many potential page publishers required some guidance in the face of numerous design choices. While we believe in creativity and individuality—as evident in our non-strict imposition of the corporate style guide—some uniformity is essential for a pleasing overall visuals effect.

Before proceeding, it's essential to note that this vast array of design options wasn't always available. In my previous employment, a large chunk of our intranet development budget was allocated to creating a custom News setup. Unfortunately, By the time we were done, SharePoint announced a similar feature at no extra cost.

  • Structure: Organize pages according to their respective functional units. Each unit gets its site for publishing pages and posts. Our structure also uses Hubs for grouping these organizational sites enabling shared navigation, color schemes, as well as news roll-up. All hub sites maintain Blue theme which complements well with our corporate style guide. Also, remember to keep site icons identical for easy identification of intranet-related pages.

  • Guidelines: Alongside the standardized features, some directions were developed to ensure consistent pages and posts inline with our standards. Titles should be kept short and interesting, preferably one line. Active voice writing is encouraged. Avoid using certain verbs like 'can,' 'will,' 'be,' 'may,' 'become' and underlining your text to avoid confusion with hyperlinks. Also, avoid using unnecessary abbreviations and if you do, explain it before using in parentheses. Add documents with clear, dateless titles to avoid editing when changes occur. Keep your page to the barest minimum but utilize headings and anchors for longer texts. Do use capitals sparingly.

  • Layouts: Use the 'One column' or 'One-third right' layout for news posts while static pages can have different layouts. Images should be sourced from our 'Image bank' or Stock Images to avoid copyright infringements. Also, stick to standard size, bold, black, or 'theme dark alternate' blue for introduction texts. Apply these rules for headings as well, and always remember to publish dates on your news posts. We encourage comments for news posts and short-term pages for internal discussions. Lastly, note deviation from these guidelines is allowed if the post or page content demands extra attention.

We welcome feedback on these guidelines specifically and any other useful tips for making SharePoint pages more consistent in general.

Please let us know what other procedures are using for your SharePoint platform. Understanding and having a consistent design across your organization's SharePoint-based pages are crucial for keeping it user-friendly and professional.

More links on about How do design a good SharePoint Page?

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