Creating a User-Friendly KNET

3 min readSep 28, 2020

KNET is a product that serves a wide range of purposes for a wide range of users. While it meets some needs of its users, there are changes that could make KNET a better product. Specifically, KNET should reduce the amount of text on the homepage by creating a news feed and a calendar function.

KNET and Its Customers

KNET is the internal intranet for the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). It is a central location for various parts of the HKS community to connect and share important information. Its users vary from students to faculty to HKS administration. The appendix contains a full stakeholder map. An important feature of KNET is that much of its user base only uses it for a finite period. Therefore, there is a constant influx of new users. Additionally, the various stakeholders use the platform for different purposes. The appendix includes a profile of KNET’s customers and KNET’s value map. It mainly focuses on students’ perspectives but also includes elements that pertain to faculty and administration.

KNET is currently not serving important customer needs well, and many of its stakeholders find KNET hard to use. A teardown of the homepage is in the appendix. While there are many pain points, a primary hindrance is the amount of text and information on the homepage. It makes it difficult for a customer to know where to begin reading and could cause users to disengage. This could lead to negative consequences such as users missing important information. Several changes could benefit KNET. However, in the resource-constrained environment of HKS IT, any change will need to have apositive impact on a wide range of groups. This is why the news feed and calendar feature should be in the next phase of updates.

News Feed

The news feed feature would consolidate the current HKS Announcements, In the News, and HKS News sections of the KNET home page. It will be a primary feature on the page that automatically lists announcements and news in order from most recent to oldest. Each post will have a bold headline, a short description, name of the department/account posting the update (e.g. Student Services), time since posted, and a color-coded badge for what category of update it is (announcement, campus news, or public news).

Calendar

A calendar function would include information from the Dean’s Discussions and Upcoming Events section. The default would include only the current five day week when the user is viewing the homepage. It will only include titles of events under the day on which they will be. The title will be hyperlinked for users to view detailed event descriptions if a user is interested in learning about a particular event. Similar to the news feed, users will be able to see who posted an event, and events will have color-coded badges (e.g. Deans Discussion, Forum Event, etc.) A later version of the calendar will contain program deadlines for specific users.

Benefits of New Features

These new features will create benefits for both the faculty and administration that upload information and the various users such as students that consume the information. By consolidating multiple sections into just two features, adding time as an organizing tool, and introducing authors and color coded badges, the user can easily scan the information. This will help users promptly consume information and also feel more connected to the community by knowing what is happening.