101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #81 - Change Order of Search Refiners
A valuable addition to any search tool is refiners, which allows users to narrow down search results by more specific criteria and get to the information they need.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #82 - Search Results Not Found
You should always ask yourself, “What happens when a user gets no search results?” Instead of only offering the user a message that says “no results found” try including specific, actionable...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #83 - Managed Properties in Search
Using managed properties helps narrow the search scope to get better, more relevant search results. Use this feature to help your users utilize search more effectively.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #84 - Pay Attention to Search Logs
One of the biggest things you can do to improve your site’s search is pay attention to what users are doing on your site. Being aware of what your users are looking for is the first step to improving...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #85 - Index Only Things You Want Searched
Determine whether your SharePoint site has information on it that you don’t want showing up as a search result. If there are items that you don’t want to show up in search results, make sure you don’t...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #86 - Custom Help
Use custom site collection to help provide your users with specific and useful help on your site.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #87 - Lookup With Picker
Adding the lookup with picker can help your users find information much quicker and easier.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #88 - Audience Sorting
Audience sorting provides the opportunity to present information that is more focused and relevant to each user. This can improve the ability for users to find information, and to do so more...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #89 - Anonymous Access & SharePoint Ribbon
The SharePoint ribbon can sometimes cause some confusion for users navigating a website. If users do not need the ribbon it is usually best to disable it to avoid potential uncertainties.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #90 - Make sure Modal Interaction is Consistent
Modal interactions should be consistent throughout a site to avoid creating uncertainties about how the site works.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #91 - Error Messages People Can Understand
Change up the 404 message to give your users a little bit more help regarding why they might be seeing it.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #92 - Submit Feedback Web Part
Give users a way to submit feedback about the site. This will help users feel like the issues they experienced can and will be fixed and it also provides you with opportunities to learn about your...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #93 - Use JavaScript Wisely
Too much JavaScript, or in other words too many 'bells & whistles' can negatively impact your site's performance, compatibility and accessibility. Keep your JavaScript simple by only using...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #94 - Default Views Menu
Custom views in SharePoint lists and libraries can be difficult for users to find and use. Instead of relying on users to find the custom views in the ribbon you can add them to the left-navigation to...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #95 - Try to Never Use Dropdown Menus
Users tend to view dropdowns as a representation of everything on the site, so that is how you must approach it. Since this can be challenging to accomplish on some sites, it is best to avoid using...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #96 - Don't Make Links Wordy
Navigation links that are too wordy and long are more likely to get overlooked and/or misunderstood. Keeping it short, simple and concise will help users quickly recognize and understand what the link...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #97 - Testing Your Users
This is possibly the most important tip! While the past 96 tips are essential guidelines to follow, to truly understand your site's usability is to test it with actual users. The 5 quality components...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #98 - Using Tools to Help Test Usability
Leverage a usability testing tool to record and capture things like mouse clicks, time on task, difficulty and other data and trends that can be helpful in identifying and understanding usability...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #99 - Use the SUS to Measure Users
The SUS (System Usability Scale) is a survey that can be used either independently to understand how your site ranks in the eyes of users, or in addition to the task based usability testing discussed...
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #100 - Pay More Attention to What You Are Doing
Don't let your site get out of control as time passes by. Pay attention to what you are doing so you don't let your site get out of control and fall back into the same problems as before.
View Article101 SharePoint Usability Tips: #101 - Putting Your Usability Into Action -...
Conducting a usability study will almost always suggest change, but if those changes are never implemented due to a lack of time and money, there is no sense in conducting the study in the first...
View ArticleMy 2013 Speaking Schedule to date
Hey everyone, Hope you all had a great holiday and are looking forward to the 2013 year. If we don't fall off the fiscal cliff (I know….lame) then we are in for a great 2013 in both the SharePoint and...
View ArticleSharePoint Confession – Why I dumped SQL 2008R2
Good Day all, welcome to the SharePoint Confessions Series. We here at High Monkey like to do things a bit different but yet address your business pain. The SharePoint Confessions series is our way of...
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OneNote Kanban Board – One Board to Rule The Tasks!
It’s a given that any working professional has a never-ending list of tasks, to-do’s and follow-ups. As the list always seems to grow faster than you can complete them, the challenge becomes more...
View ArticleUsability Testing: Why you need it, and when you don't
Usability Testing seems more and more commonplace in web projects, yet at the same time when the budget gets tight it is often the first line item to be cut. Why is this? My experience has been that...
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Best of the 'Net - 1997
The year is 1997 the Internet is going like gang-busters - that big nasty tech sector meltdown is years away. So what was popular on the 'Net all those years ago? Netscape 3.0 and Internet Explorer...
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The Dot-Com Party is over! Do you remember 2000?
It's December 2000 and the Dot-Com bubble is bursting. VC money is starting to dry up, new Dot-Com companies are doing layoffs, and the meltdown is just getting started. Here's some of what the...
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SPTECHCON Review
Last week I gave 4 sessions: 1. Creating Dynamic Interactive Reports using Power View 2. SQL 2012 - Why it is so important to SharePoint 3. The Magic Revealed Four real world examples using the Client...
View ArticleThanks Internet - Everybody is a dev now
In regards to the title of this article, Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) would say, “Is that sarcasm?” I will leave that for you to judge after reading. As a developer by nature, the internet is a...
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The Internet Economy Rules! - A look back at 1999 when times were good (so we...
It's December 1999 and the Internet Economy is changing EVERYTHING - or, at least it appeared that way. The Industry Standard magazine published a 265 page edition, really a small book, about how the...
View ArticleReview SQL Satuday Detroit from a SharePoint guy
Today I attended SQL Saturday #204 today Detroit 2013. I will first give you my impressions on set up and what I liked about the mechanics: 1. I printed my registration online via what they call a...
View ArticleReview SQL Satuday Detroit from a SharePoint guy
Today I attended SQL Saturday #204 today Detroit 2013. I will first give you my impressions on set up and what I liked about the mechanics: 1. I printed my registration online via what they call a...
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Keeping Development Simple: Kentico Navigation Customization
The Problem While building our new website (highmonkey.com) within Kentico CMS 7 (product placement) - we were faced with a technical problem of adding anchor links into the local navigation because...
View ArticleYour Website Could be Hurting Your Business
Every organization should have a web strategy that includes Usability Testing. With over 2 Billion people using the Internet to access its 644 million websites, there are countless reasons why...
View ArticleHeading across the Pond for SharePoint Evolutions
Well it’s that time again to head across the pond to sunny (oops, I mean warmer than Minnesota) London for the 2013 SharePoint Evolutions conference. This is my 5th year I’ve had the honor of being...
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PERFMON: Do you know me?
SharePoint 2010 runs on a server with Windows 2008R2/2012. Included with this is a Performance Monitor tool. As a SharePoint Administrator you should be aware of this tool and its components....
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Keeping Development Simple: Design Application
Not Everyone is Comfortable With Divs So maybe you know HTML inside and out, and maybe everyone around you does as well. Sure it's easy enough to show someone who doesn't know any HTML how to change a...
View ArticleSharePoint 2010 vs 2013 Usability Showdown (Recap)
Thanks again for everyone who attended my Usability Showdown webinar yesterday. We had a great crowd and some great questions and discussion. As promised, below is the recorded version of my...
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Building Websites People Can Actually Use
Building Websites People Can Actually Use - Click to view video! This fast paced webinar will take you through the stages of how a website gets built the right way - based on a solid Information...
View ArticleHappy 20th Birthday to the Web
The Web that we all know today is only 20 years old. Today! On April 30, 1993 CERN released Tim Berners-Lee's W3 software to the public domain. Early web browswers soon followed and the web that...
View ArticleThanks to the Reston SharePoint User Group
Thanks to the Reston SharePoint User Group for hosting me this past Monday at their monthly meeting. I had a great time presenting on Information Architecture and how it has changed in SharePoint...
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Customize the SharePoint 2013 Suite Bar!
Simply put: I am giving you a working VS 2012 solution to modify the Suite Bar. I love that people in this community share code, but there always seems to be that one thing missing to get it to work....
View ArticleSharePoint Web Analytics Deep "Paper"
SharePoint 2010 Web Analytics is for lack of better wording, lacking. How about - it is just not well documented in any sense. Take a look over the web and the best resource I found was REALLY tough...
View ArticleSharePoint 2013 Suite Bar Newsfeed Modification
The Suite Bar is anything but sweet. One would think that there would be an easy method to modify the links on this component. But, Only through Powershell and server side code you can modify the...
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Usability Testing for the Greatest User Experience
Usability Testing for the Greatest User Experience - Click to view video! Thanks again to all who attended my Usability Testing webinar! Be wary of a web designer that offers all of the answers before...
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SharePoint 2013 Playing Cards
With SharePoint 2013 out and being adapted, how do you come up to speed with the technology. How about playing cards from High Monkey. Each card contains a different fact. Now is the time to order your...
View ArticleMy UXPA 2013 Recap
So for what has been a rarity for me for a long time, I was actually able to attend, just as an attendee, the User Experience Professionals Association 2013 conference in Washington DC. Where I have...
View ArticleMinnesotaVeteran.org Launch!
After working closely with the Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs (MDVA) over the past year to completely redesign their website, the new and improved MDVA website (MinnesotaVeteran.org) has...
View ArticleThe 4 Stages of SharePoint Adoption
Over the years of consulting work with 5 versions of SharePoint, we've learned that there are four distinct stages of SharePoint adoption for organizations. These four stages are relentlessly...
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Website "Build It" Webinar
Website “Build It” Workshop – Kentico EMS 7 - Click to view video! Thanks again to all who attended the "Build It" Webinar! This webinar will be going through some of the steps we followed to build our...
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