Implement SharePoint using KISS Principle

It is Valentine’s Day, so today’s blog post is about the KISS. KISS principle that is. KISS principle has been around in Software Design since 1960’s and stands for “Keep it Simple Stupid”. A catch-phrase that surely gets the attention. The principle is all about a notion that everything we design should be simple. I can’t think of a better environment then SharePoint to apply this principle.

SharePoint implementation is not about technology. It is about simplicity, training and user adoption

I cannot tell you how many times I looked at my clients’ existing SharePoint sites and every curse word came to my mind (usually in multiple languages and variations). From cluttered sites and pages, to navigation menus with 50+ links, such sites are surely a great way to kill User Adoption.

One thing to remember is that whatever it is you create in SharePoint is not about you. It is about users! It is not about making it easy for you to dump files, it is about the rest of the users trying to search and find them. As such, all the sites, navigation, information architecture, site content, library organization should be based on User-Centered-Design.

To translate this into English, that means that:

1. The SharePoint sites reflect specific needs and wants of your users
2. Your users are involved every step of the way throughout design and development of your SharePoint sites
3. Each SharePoint site takes into account/addresses user experience

And to explain this even further – if you ignore/omit any of the above concepts – your SharePoint implementation will fail.