I am looking to build a Command Center Private Site:

I am putting together a private “Intranet-like” site for my company.  
It will not actually be an Intranet or Portal, but more of a Command
Center.  Maybe I can even call it a DashBoard or Control Center, or
Mission Control.

It will be a web-page that has links to other internal company
resources (web-based ones) like our webmail, our FTP, our web-based
accounting system, our Extranet, and the webcam on my desk.  Just 1
web page, with those links.

I have no idea what something like this might look like, as far as the
graphic design of it..

Where can I find examples of this type of thing, so I can see how
others have solved this visual design challenge?    I would like as
many examples as possible, even if they are only non-working screen
shots.


Thanks

The comments posted in this section are very good.

Even though we are an IT firm our intranet is a plain web page with
links to information we want or need.

The following sites have good screenshots.
Austin Intranet: http://home.austin.rr.com/cassoli/autumnecho/cx.html
Dolphin: http://www.dolphinmsds.com/Products/imsdsviewer_screenshots.htm
Macintosh: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/reiff/PublicSpace/ScreenShots8.html
(quite busy)
ConEd: http://home.earthlink.net/~laurie247/screenshots/con_ed_home.html
(nice)
If you need to do any booking using the site see:
http://www.dimac.net/Websites/dimac/Website/Products/w3Booking/w3BookingScreenshots
Another Clean site: http://www.illumination.com.au/products/screenshots/v
Statistics based intranet:
http://www.ostafiev.com/ifs/screenshots.html\
Some fun designs: http://www.starspawn.com/foob/shots.htm

I used the words intranet, control center and webcam to preform this
search in yahoo.

This journal might be of interest to you.
http://www.intranetjournal.com

Also there seems to be a lot of software if you want a template to set
up your site.

Hope this helps,
Lisarahda

---

Request for Answer Clarification by sherpaj-ga on 30 Jul 2002 01:49 PDT

Could you send me more visual examples?  None of those really were
going in the right direction, or especially cool/stylish looking, or
even one that is like a dashboard for a company. Thanks much....

---

Clarification of Answer by lisaradha-ga on 30 Jul 2002 05:31 PDT

From Mike Strong's page copyright 1999 here is a visual example from
Cobra Admin Services http://www.mikestrong.com/portfolio/intra.html.

For $56 dollars you can download the Nielsen Norman Group copyright
2002 report of the 10 best intranets for 2001
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/2001/.

IntraSmart by Mindbrige http://www.mindbridge.com/ has a 10 user site
liscense for a trail download with examples.

Decatur Memorial Hospital example intranet
http://www.chadnmitchell.com/DMHIntranet.html from Mitchell Desktop
Publishing.

From the same site as above an example for the Decatur Elctronics site
http://www.chadnmitchell.com/DEIIntranet.html.

There are two examples of the Ericsson UK internet site from
Instantwords on the top of this page
http://www.instantwords.com/websites.html copyright 2002.

NetTech Inc has set up an intranet live demo at this site
http://www.nettechinc.com/demo.asp.

Digital Spinner copyright 2002 has six visual examples of intranets on
their site http://www.digitalspinner.com/web/examples.html.

For this search I used the words "intranet visual examples" in Yahoo!
and went through the search results for one hour to find you these
examples.

Lisaradha

---

Request for Answer Clarification by sherpaj-ga on 05 Aug 2002 01:38 PDT

I am looking for more of a mission control site.  A dashboard for an
small companies day-to-data.  Not a Intranet.  The kind of stuff (or
links) we would have there are: our webmail, our FTP directories, our
web-based
accounting system, our favorite URLs, and the webcam on my desk.  Just
1
web page, with those links.  It needs to look cool, stylish, maybe
even hi-tech.  Would you mind taking another stab?

---

Clarification of Answer by lisaradha-ga on 05 Aug 2002 05:17 PDT

To clarify my answer I did a search in Google using the words small
company dashboard and digital dashboard.

American Express Small Business copyright 2001
https://www70.americanexpress.com/smallbusiness/dashboard/FrontServlet?request_type=register
has an example of what they call a small business dashboard.  There is
no link for a web cam, but it could always be added on as a tab.

Oracle Small Business Suite copyright 2002
http://www.oraclesmallbusiness.com/portal/home.jsp?mode=browse&category=1
has a great visual example under the "Take a Tour link" from this
page; you will need flash to run this demonstration.

Biz Anyware provides this live demonstration of what they call a
digital dashboard, very simple but clear. 
http://www.bizanyware.com.au/demo/Rental%20Management/

Steven Anderson has written an article Designing a "Front Panel" which
gives examples of digital dashboards. 
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi95/Electronic/documnts/dsgbrief/sra_fg2.gif
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi95/Electronic/documnts/dsgbrief/sra_fg1.gifv
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi95/Electronic/documnts/dsgbrief/sra_fg3.gif
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi95/Electronic/documnts/dsgbrief/sra_fg4.gif

This article from Exchange copyright 2000
http://exchange.devx.com/upload/free/features/exchange/2000/02feb00/br0100/br0100.asp
provides coding and visual samples of digital dashboards.

Diane Poremsky copyright 2002 offers a good view of a digital
dashboard on active desktop on this site
http://www.poremsky.com/AD_DD.htm.

DigiDashLive copyright 2002 provides four examples of digital
dashboards, which they call cool.
1.  http://www.digidashlive.com/russian_dd.htm
2.  http://www.digidashlive.com/dsp_portal.htm
3.  http://www.digidashlive.com/navision.htm
4.  http://www.digidashlive.com/outlooktoday.htm

I have spent another hour and a half completing this research for you;
I sincerely hope it helps you find what you are looking for.

Lisa

The microsoft exchange/portal lead looks very interesting, i'll pursue it.  
Thanks for all the extra hard work.  you rock!

Hello Sherpaj,

Here are some ideas:
- you can reuse the company's homepage design with slight alterations,
like changing the logo to something reading "Company-Name Intranet"
- a bright, calm, warm color scheme (the site will be looked at often,
so it should appear friendly)
- prominently featured main links in the contentual area, as well as a
left-side navigation area featuring a more detailed structure (like
links to intranet help documents)
- depending on the size of the company, you can also use a map of the
building/ the offices with computers located in it as a center of
design
- you can give people the chance to actually put their favorite
content in the intranet (using a Content Management System), this can
contain shared and private content
- the first portal page should not be filled with too much information
or links(but you should make the most important intranet links easy to
remember, e.g. by using subdomains)
- for a personalized portal page you might give users the option to
hide/ show certain areas, like little information boxes containing
information and links on a special subject
- a random quote, or cartoon of the day somewhere below the crucial
information can make people like the page better
- you might want to put a clearly visible search box somewhere on the
page

Hope this helps.