The Intranet Design Guide
Not sure where to get started in designing your intranet?
Check out our easy step-by-step guide below.
Let us guide you through the process.
Intranet Design Made Simple
Deciding to go ahead with an intranet was the easy part, right? After all, whether it’s improved communications, more streamlined processes, or easier access to information, the intranet ticks all the boxes.
However, designing your intranet can be a daunting task.
There are many decisions to be made around the type of intranet, hosting options, organization, structure, plus content, and design. With so much to think about, it can be tough to get started.
And if technology isn’t really your thing, it can be even harder to kick-start your intranet. That’s where this intranet design guide comes into play.
So, if widget, cache, and malware sound like another language, then this guide is for you! Written in simple-to-understand and jargon-free terms, the design guide is non-technical. And where technical language is unavoidable, we clearly define what we mean.
This guide will show you that designing an intranet is a simple task. In fact, it’s so easy, you won’t need IT backup or a college degree in computers!
Click here to download this guide in PDF format
Step-By-Step Intranet Design Support
The guide is a comprehensive resource, covering everything you need to know about intranets. We provide helpful insights at every stage, from different intranet types and hosting options to security and training.
And we also look at all the latest intranet design best practices. This resource includes lots of practical examples and visuals that will excite and inspire you.
What’s Included In This Intranet Design Guide
Who Should Read This Guide
The design guide is an essential resource for anyone planning to implement a new intranet. It’s also required reading if you are looking to revitalize, revamp, or refresh an existing intranet.
Perhaps you are in the market for an intranet provider to help you realize your vision. The design guide can help you make a winning selection.
Written for the non-technical person, this resource will also support HR or Marketing staff tasked with implementing an intranet.
Why Intranet Design Is So Important
Before we move on, it’s essential to understand why intranet design is so important.
Your intranet’s overall look and feel has the power to grab users’ attention and draw them in. It can spark creativity and foster collaboration. It can connect employees and turn the everyday task into something engaging and fun.
However, the stakes are high. A poorly designed intranet will have the opposite effect. A confusing, overloaded, and ugly intranet will see staff switch off. It’s a wasted opportunity as well as investment.
With so much to lose, getting your intranet design right has to be a priority.
No Two Intranets Are Alike
When it comes to design, there is no one-size-fits-all intranet solution. Sure, there will be similarities. It could be layout, functionality, or scope. However, every organization is different, and so too is their intranet.
Furthermore, staff members will use the intranet differently depending on their job roles and team functions.
Employees use the intranet mainly to source information or collaborate with colleagues. Managers, however, use the intranet to engage workers with targeted communications.
Your intranet design needs to satisfy all the varying needs of employees.
And it also needs to meet the challenges of the modern digital workplace.
The global Covid-19 pandemic has fast-tracked the shift towards remote working. Companies have to pivot and rethink how they engage with their workforce in today’s rapidly changing environment.
And they need to ensure employees have the tools available to remain productive even when working from home.
A mobile intranet is a minimum requirement. In fact, it’s not so much a requirement as an expectation. Whether staff are on the go or working from home, they expect to continue working.
Versatile and flexible, the intranet is capable of meeting these competing demands. And your intranet design should make this vision a reality.
Intranet Templates Make Design Easy
And if you are pushed for time, then intranet design templates could be the perfect solution. This guide takes you through all you need to know.
In short, intranet templates come with in-built coding plus a basic design and graphics. The setup wizard makes it quick and easy to implement your customized intranet. Upload your logo, branding, and corporate colors to really put your company stamp on the intranet. And the good news is the intranet provider has already extensively tested the functionality. And that’s one less major headache for you to worry about.
Therefore, design templates are a popular choice if you need to get your intranet up and running quickly.
Let Us Guide You
Use this guide to make your intranet deployment a smoother and quicker process.
Essential reading for those starting to deploy an intranet, this resource will also help businesses looking to revamp an existing intranet.
Either way, we understand the challenges that are involved. And you get the benefit of our experience as we guide you through the process from beginning to end.
So, let’s get started.
Intranet Design Infographic
If you would like an overview of our intranet design guide, we have created a PDF infographic file summarizing the main points available here.
Further Reading
This further reading list will be an invaluable resource as it takes you through everything you need to know. We give you the benefit of our considerable experience in developing intranets and provide simple, easy-to-follow explanations, insights and advice.
Use this list to explore the latest intranet design best practice principles. Find out how pre-built intranet templates could well be the solution every time-pressed business owner is looking for. Discover how to ensure your intranet design is mobile friendly and optimized for use on smartphones and tablets. And learn about how to make your intranet interactive and fun so that users readily engage with the platform making for a more efficient and effective workplace.
These are just some of the insights available in this category so why not have a browse or use the search functionality to explore more about intranet design. With our comprehensive knowledge bank, you’ll soon discover that designing an intranet isn’t the mammoth task that perhaps you first thought it was.
7 Jotform Alternatives To Consider
Jotform has long been a go‑to online form builder for many businesses, offering a drag-and-drop interface, conditional logic, e-signatures, and thousands of templates. However, common complaints include slow loading times, an outdated editor, and overwhelming template choices—pushing many organizations to explore alternatives.
To help decision-makers, MyHub lists seven compelling Jotform alternatives: forms.app, Zoho Forms, Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, ProProfs Survey Maker, SurveyMonkey, and its own intranet-powered form builder. Each option varies in ease-of-use, feature set, pricing, analytics, and integrations, making it easier to align tool choice with organizational needs and budgets.
MyHub’s form builder stands out by combining intuitive drag-and-drop form design with workflow automation—notifications, approval routing, conditional fields, and role-based permissions—all included at no extra cost within its intranet platform. With built-in integrations to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, mobile accessibility, and support tools, it offers a more holistic form solution suited for internal processes.
Work From Home Policy – With PDF Sample Template
The widespread shift to home-based work during the pandemic has led organizations to recognize remote and hybrid work as permanent fixtures in modern working life. A formal work-from-home policy is now a necessity—not a luxury—enabling clarity between employer and employee on expectations, rights, and performance standards.
This article outlines the six critical steps in crafting an effective policy: define clear objectives and scope (such as fully remote vs hybrid use), establish eligibility criteria, set communication and work-hour expectations, and specify technical support, equipment provisions, and expense arrangements. It also includes vital sections on cybersecurity protocols, approvals process, and social support to address remote isolation.
By implementing a structured WFH policy, companies can safeguard sensitive data, boost productivity, reduce overhead, and improve employee well-being. Remote workers benefit from greater clarity on equipment allowances, tech support, and workspace setup guidance, while employers protect their interests and strengthen recruitment and retention in an increasingly flexible work landscape.
Extranet vs. Intranet vs. Internet: The Ultimate Explanation
The Internet is an open, global network accessible to anyone, offering unlimited reach but minimal control—making it insecure for sensitive business operations. By contrast, an intranet is a private, internal network owned and managed by a company. Protected with firewalls and login credentials, it offers employees a secure place to communicate, collaborate, and share documents.
An extranet builds on the intranet by granting controlled access to external stakeholders—such as suppliers, partners, or franchisees—enabling collaboration without exposing the entire internal network. It balances openness with privacy, allowing secure sharing of relevant information beyond company walls.
While all three network types use standard web technologies (e.g. HTTP, IP protocols), their main distinctions lie in ownership, user access, and security. The Internet is unregulated and public, the intranet is internal and regulated, and the extranet is a selectively shared private network—each chosen based on organizational collaboration needs and security requirements.
How To Guides – Ideas, Examples, Step by Step
How-to guides are everywhere—and for good reason. They’re simple, step-by-step instructions that help people learn a task or process—whether it’s creating a company onboarding plan or cooking dinner. The best guides are clear, focused, and tailored to their audience, offering actionable steps that actually get results.
These guides serve many purposes: they offer self-service support for customers and employees, boost satisfaction, and reduce repetitive inquiries. Internally, they help onboard new staff, preserve institutional knowledge, and minimize mistakes—especially on common tasks or workflows.
To craft a great how-to guide, start by understanding your audience and researching the task. Then break the process into clear steps using simple, jargon-free language and logical order. Enhance clarity with visuals like images or examples. Finally, wrap up with resource links and a FAQ section for further support.
How To Motivate Employees: 12 Effective Ways
Employee motivation isn’t just about compensation—it’s about engaging the heart and mind. MyHub’s guide lays out four core drivers—recognition, responsibility, advancement, and rewards—which, when embedded in simple workplace strategies, lead to measurable boosts in morale and performance. Notably, 67% of employees cite praise from managers as more motivating than a pay raise.
One practical strategy is recognition. Public acknowledgment—via shout-outs, peer-nominated awards, or spot bonuses—costs little but delivers high impact. Highlighting achievements on the company intranet, newsletters, or team meetings reinforces a culture of gratitude and helps employees feel valued.
Another key approach is empowering employees with responsibility and autonomy. When staff have control over their tasks and decision-making, they become more engaged and committed. Coupled with visible opportunities for professional growth—through training, mentoring or advancement—it helps them see a future with the organisation. A modern intranet can support this by hosting learning modules, skill quizzes, and forums to share expertise.
10 Employee Motivation Strategies That Actually Work
Effective employee motivation extends far beyond pay raises—it’s about purpose, recognition, autonomy, and growth. MyHub’s article highlights that truly motivated teams thrive when they feel valued and empowered, and not just compensated. Strategic motivation taps into company culture and communication to keep employees consistently engaged and productive.
The blog presents 10 practical strategies that consistently motivate employees. These include enhancing one-on-one feedback, setting purpose-driven goals, deploying pulse surveys, launching peer recognition programs, offering remote positive shout-outs, and enabling autonomy through self-service tools on the intranet.
These tactics are designed to be low-cost, scalable, and easy to implement—ideal for managers and HR professionals focused on real change without budget strain. Crucially, these strategies create lasting engagement by reinforcing value, identity, and clear direction. They transform environments where motivation is elective into cultures where it becomes foundational—driving resilience, retention, and performance.
Franchise Intranet Software – The Social Intranet for Franchises
Franchise businesses face unique challenges due to their scale and distributed nature. With over 8.9 million workers contributing nearly $900 billion to the global economy, ensuring consistent communication, brand standards, and training across multiple locations is critical.
A franchise intranet serves as a secured online hub accessible only to franchisees and staff. It centralizes essential resources—like news, branding materials, onboarding modules, policy documents, discussion forums, and collaborative spaces—ensuring easy access and alignment across all sites.
Beyond centralization, these intranets enhance engagement through social features like news feeds and recognition programs. They also boost operational consistency via compliance tracking, read receipts, and automated workflows. The result? A scalable, efficient, and cohesive infrastructure that supports growth and performance across the entire franchise network.
Intranet Site Map – Template & Tools
A well-designed intranet site map provides a visual blueprint of the intranet’s structure—clarifying how pages and tools connect. It streamlines navigation, highlights content overlap, and gives teams a clear framework for creating intuitive pathways throughout the digital workspace .
Developing your intranet architecture should involve cross‑department collaboration. Workshops with a steering group help establish logical content groupings—often using top-down (business categories) or bottom-up (task/user-based) approaches—to define parent and child page hierarchies. A tool like Gloomaps can simplify visual planning and capture stakeholder feedback effectively
Best practices include limiting top-level navigation to fewer than ten clear categories, avoiding ambiguous labels like “Other”, and keeping names simple yet descriptive. Testing the proposed structure with real user tasks helps validate usability. As needs evolve, the site map should stay flexible, updated, and aligned with organizational changes .
Internal Communication Strategy: 15 Effective Tips
Crafting an effective internal communication strategy is no small task—but it’s absolutely critical in today’s hybrid and remote-first businesses. A successful plan connects employees to your mission and boosts engagement, productivity, and retention, rather than leaving staff disconnected from leadership and purpose.
A complete strategy goes beyond just broadcasting news. It accounts for all communication flows—top-down from leadership, bottom-up feedback, lateral peer-to-peer interactions, and crisis or change communications. It also leverages diverse media: written posts, visual content, meetings, voice calls, and digital channels—each contributing to clarity and trust across teams.
Building the strategy begins by auditing current communication practices and capturing employee feedback, then setting clear SMART objectives tied to business outcomes. From there, you implement a phased action plan: forming a cross-functional team, segmenting audiences, choosing the right channels, creating a cadence, planning informal social spaces, and distributing the strategy widely. Rigorous measurement and frequent reviews help you refine the plan into a living, strategic asset.
20 Fun Ways To Welcome New Employees
Starting a new job can be overwhelming, even for seasoned professionals. MyHub highlights that a friendly and thoughtful welcome calms first-day jitters and accelerates employee integration—strengthening employee retention by up to 82% and improving productivity by 70%. The article introduces 20 creative ideas to make onboarding memorable and team-oriented from day one, whether in-office or remote.
Among the ideas for in-person experiences are sending a warm welcome email ahead of time, preparing the workspace with fun decorations, assembling a personalized welcome package with company swag, and having managers greet new hires at the entrance. Additional ideas include hosting a casual first-day party, organizing an interactive scavenger hunt, using a buddy or mentor system, and assigning the new hire a meaningful first project to boost confidence and ownership.
Recognizing the rise of remote and hybrid work, MyHub also offers seven digital-friendly onboarding ideas. These include sending a shout-out announcement via IM, ordering a lunch delivery, offering virtual tours, hosting an online scavenger hunt, using fun Zoom backgrounds, organizing a virtual happy hour, and arranging meet-and-greet sessions across departments. These ideas help remote employees feel connected and included right from the start.
Meeting Minutes: Sample, Format, How To Write
Effective meeting minutes serve as a concise, factual record of discussions, decisions, action items, and next steps. They help teams remember key takeaways, assign accountability, and support legal or compliance auditing—especially valuable for board meetings or multi-department gatherings.
The blog recommends starting with the meeting agenda to structure your notes, checking expectations with the facilitator, leveraging voice recordings when available, and sticking to past-tense, objective summaries rather than personal comments. Using a consistent template covering date, time, participants, agenda items, decisions, action points, and next meeting details ensures clarity and completeness .
Additional advice includes proofreading for consistency in tense and formatting, assigning tasks to named individuals with deadlines, and circulating minutes quickly to maintain relevance. Templates for board, team, and one-on-one meetings are provided in both Word and PDF formats to simplify adoption.
Marketing Intranet: 11 Ways To Get More For Your Marketing Buck
Marketing departments often face pressure to deliver results with limited resources. A marketing intranet helps maximize ROI by consolidating communication, collaboration, and resource sharing—all in one platform. It allows marketing teams to operate more efficiently, avoiding duplicate efforts and wasted time.
From planning new campaigns to launching products, a marketing intranet supports every stage. Collaborative workspaces enable smoother data gathering, integrated editing via Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace cuts down coordination lag, and homepage features like launch alerts ensure timely visibility. Centralized libraries for marketing collateral—such as templates, graphics, and case studies—with advanced search capabilities help teams self-serve what they need, reducing reliance on admins.
This platform also supports broader company alignment. CRM integration (e.g., Salesforce) delivers seamless access to customer data. Market research can be published enterprise-wide to inform strategic decisions in real time. Secure extranet access lets agencies, printers, or freelancers collaborate efficiently without compromising brand consistency. Internal blogs, campaign shoutouts, and real-time chat foster communication and recognition—reinforcing marketing’s visibility and influence.
15 New Intranet Launch Ideas
Launching a new intranet isn’t simply a technical rollout—it requires a vibrant launch campaign to generate excitement and drive user adoption. This post from MyHub outlines 15 fresh, practical strategies that engage employees before, during, and after the launch. The emphasis is on people-focused tactics—not just features—to ensure the intranet becomes a part of daily workflow.
Before launch, efforts such as identifying intranet ambassadors, running teaser campaigns, and featuring a naming competition help build momentum. These pre-launch tactics appeal to emotional investment—exciting employees about what’s coming and how the intranet will improve their work lives. During launch day, strategies include live demos, Q&A sessions, training events, and gamified elements like badges and leaderboards to encourage engagement from day one.
Post-launch activities focus on sustaining momentum: onboarding guides, ice-breaker challenges, feedback surveys, recognition campaigns, and periodic “intranet champions” push messages. With the right mix of anticipation, engagement, and follow‑through, MyHub shows organizations can transform their new intranet from a tool into a thriving digital community.
Board Governance Models: The How, What, And Why
Strong board governance is critical to organizational success. This blog post explores the 7 most common governance models used by boards worldwide, including the advisory board, cooperative, management team, policy, traditional, and hybrid models. Each model defines different roles, responsibilities, and levels of authority for board members and management
For example, the policy governance model—popularized by John Carver—focuses on separating strategic oversight from daily operations, whereas the cooperative model emphasizes shared authority and consensus decision-making. The management team model involves board members actively running operations, which can be suitable for startups or smaller organizations with limited staff. Choosing the right model depends on an organization’s size, sector, resources, and goals
The post also outlines best practices for improving board effectiveness—such as adopting clear reporting lines, setting performance expectations, and using tools like MyHub’s intranet to manage board communications, documentation, and workflows securely. Ultimately, the right governance model should promote clarity, accountability, and alignment between the board and executive leadership.
Company Intranet Portal – All You Need To Know
A company intranet portal serves as your organization’s digital headquarters: a secure, private network exclusively for employees. It centralizes essential operations—internal communication, document access, company news, and team collaboration—while offering seamless integration with critical tools like CRM systems, HR platforms, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace via single sign-on. This centralized access eradicates redundant logins and tab-switching, presenting a unified user experience.
Unlike legacy intranets of the past, which were often outdated and underused—with just 13% of employees engaging daily back in 2012—modern intranet portals are dynamic, user-focused, and mission-critical to the digital workplace. Today, Forbes reports around 74% of employees use these platforms daily for communication, collaboration, and information retrieval.
These portals deliver impactful benefits: streamlined internal communication via news feeds, alerts, and targeted content; enhanced collaboration through tools like instant messaging, shared calendars, employee directories, and project workspaces; and better knowledge management, with searchable content hubs and user-friendly mobile access. Additionally, social intranet features—likes, @mentions, employee-led posts—boost engagement, while thoughtful access controls and content ownership ensure the right people see the right content.