The States have sent me a ’summary’ of the Nielsen report from 2001. It’s more like a list of what they want the Global Intranet to look like - it’s interesting because the report pretty much describes the design of the European Intranet which is a plus point for me. This is a brief part of the summary that has been sent to me:

Good intranets
Focus on simplification
Utilise unified navigation/user interface design
Feature Search prominently
Keep forms small/relevant
Keep menus short
Utilise a clear CMS that lets people focus on content and the message
Use and iterative design process and change layouts gradually

They also want to use the term ‘Team Sites’ instead of portals as they tell me its more ‘user centric’. Whatever.