Information architecture is the structural design. It is the art and science of organizing and labelling to support find-ability and usability. It is best represented by a content map of the major content categories and the sub-categories and how they all relate to each other. In addition the information architecture encompasses navigational elements including searches, site maps, help / feedback, etc. 

Information Architecture

The information architecture for the intranet captures the three main pillars of intranet content: Organizational Information, Functional Information, and Social Information. 

• ABOUT UNEP tab Information relating to the structure UNEP as an organisation, including information about the people, divisions, regional offices, offices, and MEAs that form the greater UNEP and MEA environment.
• HOW WE WORK tab: Information relating to the strategies, processes, and work-outcomes of the organisation, including strategies, policies, processes, templates, and other similar information.
• STAFF ENGAGEMENT tab:  Information relating to personnel engagement and social activities/initiatives.

Well populated profiles are important to enable personnel to allow a thriving network of thematic experts to identify one-another or to seek out individuals with specific skills or knowledge.

The profile consists of a photo, back photo and key information.

Design Standards

The pages in the intranet should be clean and simple. Personnel should be able to visit any page on the intranet and know where to click within 2-3 seconds.

Consistency Is Key – Avoid inconsistency in design, layout, navigation, terminology, etc. Familiarity breeds findability.

(a) Home Page: The design of the home page is managed and determined by the Intranet policy. The Intranet policy outlines what does (and more importantly, doesn’t) get published to the home page.

(b) Category Menus: The design of the category menus is managed and determined by the Intranet Lead in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

(c) Division / Office / Regional Office Spaces: The design of the division is managed and determined by the Intranet Lead in consultation with content creators and their teams.

Content Creation

Content accessibility

Previously weCollaborate included Confluence accessibility checker (EAP) that allowed checking the content against the standards outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). However, this tools has been discontinued by Atlassian in 2021. Currently, the weCollaborate team is exploring alternative options to ensure accessibility of the content is enhanced. 

Content compliance 

Intranet content should be specifically for UNEP personnel, written for the screen, and edited from the view-point of the content consumer. The content should also be compliant with the UN Editorial Manual,  UN Editorial Guidelines, The UN Terminology Database, and (if relevant) comply with the rules around maps and territorial boundaries.

Content accuracy and updates

In an intranet content is king. Therefore, if content is out-of-date, obsolete, or incorrect it diminishes trust and confidence in the entire site. It is for this reason strict 3 monthly content review checks are required.

If this is done regularly it is a quick process of entering into the edit mode of the page, reading the content, and then clicking update. Most space editors only have between 5-15 pages so it shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes to do this quarterly review. If it’s not kept up to date, the content may be deleted without further notice.

Personnel-focused

The content should be personnel or content consumer focused. It is important to ensure it is digestible and understandable. 

Writing for screen

A rule of thumb is that content written for the screen should be half as long as content written for print or other mediums. The flicker of pixels causes eye fatigue and content in large blocks can be overlooked. Therefore, it is important that information is presented in chunks, often referred to as the inverted pyramid format. This includes using headings, sub-headings, bullets, call-outs, expandables, sub-pages, and white space to create content that is both presentable and consumable.

Duplicate content

The information architecture sets out what content should go under which category and sub-category. It is important that this is adhered to as otherwise it creates duplicate content throughout the site. Duplicate content leads to confusion when it is updated in some areas, but not in others. Furthermore, it creates confusion in the information architecture as diminishes the familiarity breeds find-ability principle.

Search

Content should undergo the search test. When new content is added search for it, and if it doesn't come up in the top 5 search items it is hidden.

Blogs

In submitting blog articles the following procedures should be followed:

• Everyone can write blogs in UNEP, which go through approval process.
• Blogs should be tailored for internal audience (no need to replicate from UNEP website and others).
• Newsletters, stories about past and upcoming events, important publications/milestones, interesting initiatives are encouraged for HQ News and Regional News Sections.
• Personal stories for Staff Voices section are encouraged – contact Communications Division to arrange (Carolina de Souza)
• Length of the story no longer than 350 words.
• Images and teaser images are mandatory.
• Layout sections are useful for the story to be digestible and understandable.
• Think of a catchy title that will attract readers attention: "Newsletter 2024" vs "Newsletter 2024 - Global Townhall, New Induction Programme and more"
• Write blogs choosing applicable division/office (not from personal space)
• Use appropriate tags: hq_news for HQ News section and no tag for Regional News section.

Images

These guidelines help in selecting images that align with the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) objectives while maximizing visual impact and user engagement within the platform's design framework.

• Images should be of high resolution.
• Images that represent UNEP's themes, areas of focus and interest.
• Images with a clear and compelling focal point to draw the user’s attention e.g., a landmark, a wildlife species, or a significant environmental feature.
• Select landscape-oriented compositions as they fit well within the image container, offer a wider perspective compared to portrait orientations and allow ample space around the central point of interest. This ensures that the visual impact is maintained even after cropping and optimization by the platform.
• Select images with vertically centred or right centered subject matter. This ensures that the focal point is maintained and remains prominent and visually appealing after resizing or cropping.
• Select images with consistent style, color palette, and tone to create a unified look across weCollaborate, enhance user experience and reinforce branding. 
• Carefully review the photos being borrowed from internet to determine the conditions of use. Please note that many photos with Creative Commons licenses still have restrictions on their use. For a summary of those conditions, click here.

• The following websites contain images that are generally free to use, the one that we use the most is Unsplash (source: UNEP Guide to Web Stores, Communications Division):

  UNEP Digital Library

  UN Photo

  Grid-Arendal

  Unsplash

  Pixabay

  Pexels

  NASA

  International Center for Tropical Agriculture
  
  

Announcements

The weCollaborate team may post announcements and events at the request of organizational units on an ad hoc basis. Event announcements are limited to those organized by UN entities. Events taking place in locations other than at UN premises must be sponsored by UN entities.

All entities submitting announcements and/or events are encouraged to submit them in a timely manner in word with all applicable links, at least 24 hours before the requested posting date or time. Experience has shown that it is more effective to make an announcement closer to the date of the event than too far in advance.

The weCollaborate team has the responsibility for removing or reformatting announcements or events to ensure a standardized approach.

Comments

• All content must adhere to the UN’s core values of integrity, professionalism, and respect for diversity as well as to the Staff Rules and Regulations.
• They should be consistent with the standards of conduct for the international civil service, 2001 [contained in ST/SGB/2002/13], and should respect the principle of not airing personal grievances.
• Please do not use names unless you have the permission of the person concerned.
• All comments are screened to ensure they comply with this policy.  Comments are not anonymous and you will be responsible for what you write.
• Comments may not be monitored or answered by the authoring department.  If you have a question that requires a response, please contact the author directly.
• Comments should be no longer than 150 words.

Feedback

Regular engagement with content creators within divisions/offices and periodic survey addressed to everyone in UNEP to seek inputs for further improvements.

Content Management

• Operating model: The content used in the intranet is held by numerous personnel in various locations around the world. Therefore, a decentralized content management approach has been adopted with focal points designated in Divisions/Offices to be responsible for content creation/updates/deletion or archiving.
• Overall governance: The designated by the Head of Unit UNEP staff have been delegated with intranet responsibilities as content creators.  Responsibility for monitoring implementation and compliance – Enterprise Solutions Section will be responsible for reviewing this policy and related guidelines and procedures, monitoring implementation and compliance, and high-level decision making relating to the design and content of the intranet, including top level information architecture.
• Site owner: This is the person responsible for the content and quality of the sub-site. The site owner (usually head of department or functional head) may delegate intranet content and development tasks to a nominated representative (content creator).
• Content creator: This is the person and/or persons who update and maintain a web page or collection of pages as specified in the webpage footer of that site.

Record Retention Policy

This policy regulates the retention and disposal practices of content currently posted on  weCollaborate. 

The purpose of the weCollaborate retention schedule is to help content owners:

1. Be aware of how long their content (stories, classifieds, announcements) will be kept.
2. Make archiving decisions for their important information (especially if it is only available on weCollaborate).
3. Know when pages need to be updated.

The disposal of outdated content on the other hand will take place every two years. This process will be pursued in agreement between the weCollaborate Team and the content owner.

The benefits related to implementation of this policy are:  preservation of institutional memory, access to up-to-date information, and, ultimately, maximization of the system’s performance in terms of fast retrieval of info. 

Retention criteria 

The retention schedule assigned to weCollaborate content is based on the importance of information as a historical record for the Organization.

Permanent retention is recommended for some categories as they are a reflection of the work and the spirit of UN staff, for example, “News/Blogs.” This information will be stored in the system indefinitely or until a different digital website repository system becomes available.

Other categories (1 year, 30 days, etc.) are listed below.  

Records identified for deletion will be subjected to content owner‘s review before their removal of the system. The selection criterion is inactivity, which means that the page has not been updated in two years or more. The content owner will receive electronic correspondence with links to the respective pages for review and will have up to 45 days either to update it or request deletion. Otherwise, after 45 days, the pages will be removed from the UNEP Intranet -weCollaborate platform.

Controlled documents - such as quality manuals, procedures, SGBs, and AIs - should be saved in local drives outside of weCollaborate. 

This information applies to all Duty Stations.

Retention schedule for UNEP Intranet – weCollaborate content

Find the Interactive self-paced course for content creators here, for further questions reach out to Viktoria Smirnova 

Ongoing content validation: Ensuring accuracy every 90 days

At regular intervals of 90 days, you will receive an email to ensure the continued validity of your content. This straightforward process entails confirming the accuracy and that the information presented on your pages is up-to-date. This task won't demand more than 5 minutes of your time. 
 
By dedicating a small portion of your time every 90 days, you can effectively safeguard against the rise of significantly outdated pages. Your commitment to this periodic review will go a long way in maintaining the relevance and reliability of your content. 
 

Screenshot of the email that you will receive  and the action links highlighted in red:

Streamlining Directory Management

Embedding links

In order to avoid clusters of information with links, especially if they are long, we recommend that they are embedded.

Attaching Files

When uploading attachments please take into consideration the labels and naming conventions as best practices. This will facilitate the user navigation, traceability of documents and the use of macros like the “content by label” or “attachment list” macros. 
 

• How to guide on attachments 

Labels

Labels are used for: 

• Attachment Labels: should try to include as many as possible of the different label types. For example, memo, policy, guidelines, procedure, template, etc. 
• Page Labels: will mostly use the document, broad theme and narrow theme labels. For example, communication, travel, human_resources, sdgs, etc. 
• News Story / Blog Labels: will mostly use the broad theme, narrow theme, and location labels. Remember to tag the blog “Global” if you want it to appear on weCollaborate home page. 

Good practice on using labels is to substitute spaces for the underscore bar: 

Naming conventions

Name the uploaded files as per standard naming convention so that it is easily searchable. In order to avoid lists of documents that we don’t know what they are for

Example: 20230620_Project-Report_v1.2_Final.docx  

Writing Blogs

Anyone on your team can submit the blog for publishing it without the need for editing rights. Everyone is encouraged to write blogs to share with the rest of the organization what is happening and to drive traffic to your respective division/office pages. Everything from the launch of a major report/policy to a team retreat is great news stories to submit for publishing.

• It is encouraged to include photographs in the draft articles and the teaser (JPG format) or graphic images (PNG, GIF or JPG format) in 16x9 dimensions. Minimum resolution for photographs should be 300 dpi. 
• The weCollaborate team reserves the right to consult with the relevant department or office prior to posting submitted articles. 
• Links to websites not affiliated with the UN System shall be used sparingly and limited to those links that complement a story. Any such links included in posted stories shall not be construed as UN endorsement of the content therein 
•  How to guide on writing blogs 

Macro library

Utilize this valuable resource, featuring visual representations of the top 10 most commonly used macros on the page.