SharePoint 2025: Intranet Design with These 10 Essential Tips!

Key insights

• Plan Structure: Start by planning your site structure to organize content effectively. A clear and logical structure helps in scaling with organizational needs.


• SharePoint Homepage Design: Design an intuitive and engaging homepage that serves as the central hub for team communication, resources, and quick access to tools.


• SharePoint Navigation: Ensure seamless user experience with well-designed navigation, helping users find what they need quickly and efficiently.


• Banner Sections: Use banners to draw attention to important information and highlight key messages without overwhelming the page.


• Site Branding: Easily apply color themes using SharePoint’s built-in tools for consistent branding without needing PowerShell scripting.


• Audience Target News: Filter news based on location, job role, or other factors to ensure relevant content reaches the right audience within your intranet.

Introduction to SharePoint Intranet Design in 2025

In the ever-evolving world of digital workplaces, designing an effective SharePoint Intranet is crucial for organizations aiming to streamline communication and enhance productivity. Dougie Wood, a recognized MVP in the field, has shared insightful strategies in a recent YouTube video titled "10 Essential Tips for Designing a SharePoint Intranet in 2025." This article delves into these strategies, offering a comprehensive guide to building a modern and efficient intranet. Whether you're starting from scratch or enhancing an existing platform, these tips will be instrumental in creating a seamless SharePoint experience.

Planning Your SharePoint Structure

The foundation of any successful intranet lies in meticulous planning and a well-thought-out structure. A clear and logical site structure is essential for organizing content effectively and ensuring scalability as organizational needs evolve. Best practices include setting up categories, content, and a robust site hierarchy. By doing so, users can navigate the intranet with ease, finding the information they need without unnecessary complexity. Planning the structure involves balancing the need for comprehensive information with the simplicity of navigation, a challenge that requires careful consideration and foresight.

Designing the SharePoint Homepage

The homepage acts as the gateway to your intranet, making its design a top priority. An intuitive, engaging, and easily navigable homepage serves as the central hub for team communication, resources, and quick access to essential tools. Crafting such a homepage involves understanding user needs and preferences, ensuring that the design is both functional and visually appealing. The challenge here is to create a homepage that caters to diverse user groups while maintaining a cohesive and straightforward interface. This balance is vital for encouraging user engagement and maximizing the intranet's effectiveness.

Enhancing Navigation with Visual Elements

Navigation is a cornerstone of user experience, and SharePoint offers several tools to enhance it. Visual navigation, such as image-based links, can significantly improve usability by making the site more interactive and engaging. Additionally, the use of banner sections can draw attention to important information without overwhelming users. Spacer web parts help maintain alignment and prevent clutter, contributing to a clean and professional design. These elements must be carefully integrated to ensure they complement rather than complicate the user journey, a task that requires a keen eye for design and user experience principles.

Site Branding and Customization

Branding is crucial for maintaining consistency and reinforcing organizational identity within the intranet. SharePoint provides built-in tools for applying color themes, allowing for customization without the need for PowerShell scripting. This ease of customization empowers organizations to align their intranet's appearance with their brand identity seamlessly. Moreover, utilizing resources like the Microsoft Icons Library can save time and resources, providing pre-designed icons that enhance visual appeal. The challenge lies in achieving a balance between branding and functionality, ensuring that customization efforts do not hinder usability or accessibility.

Advanced Features for Enhanced User Experience

To further enrich the SharePoint experience, advanced features such as audience-targeted news, single hero layers for navigation, and quick chart web parts can be employed. Audience-targeted news ensures that relevant content reaches the right people, enhancing engagement and relevance. Single hero layers simplify navigation, making it more visually appealing, while quick chart web parts allow for data visualization without Power BI. These features add layers of functionality and personalization to the intranet, but they also require careful implementation to avoid overwhelming users with too much information or complexity.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Designing a SharePoint Intranet in 2025 involves a delicate balance of structure, design, branding, and advanced features. By following the expert tips shared by Dougie Wood, organizations can create an intranet that is not only efficient and visually appealing but also tailored to meet the diverse needs of their users. The challenges of balancing different factors and approaches are significant, but with careful planning and thoughtful execution, these can be overcome to deliver a powerful digital workplace solution. As organizations continue to adapt to the digital age, a well-designed SharePoint Intranet will remain a vital tool for enhancing communication, collaboration, and productivity.

Keywords

SharePoint Intranet Design 2025, Essential SharePoint Tips, Modern SharePoint Intranet, SharePoint Best Practices 2025, Designing SharePoint Sites, Effective SharePoint Strategies, User-Friendly SharePoint Design, Innovative Intranet Solutions.