Use photos of real employees on your intranet

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Use photos of real employees on your intranet

Monday, January 17, 2005

Our brains are wired from birth to notice other human's faces. It's the first thing we notice on the initial visit to a web page. But if we use people photos improperly on intranets, it can undermine trust. Follow these guidelines:

1. Don’t use photos of perfect people.
Stock photos contain people that are too beautiful to be real employees. Using them undermines the credibility of your intranet.

2. Don’t use people photos gratuitously.
This only distracts users, and can even be interpreted as an attempt to manipulate trust.

3. Use photos of real employees with an obvious connection to the content.
Your intranet users will immediately be drawn to the content. The photo will also provide a context that will help him or her better understand the information.

About the Author

I'm Chris McGrath, an intranet consultant in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I've been working on intranets since 1997, and on plain ol' web sites for even longer. I run One Intranets, the firm that co-created ThoughtFarmer -- an enterprise collaboration platform for Windows-based intranets.