SharePoint Design: Branded, Accessible, Engaging Sites
We are experts in SharePoint design. We work across IT, internal communications and engagement teams to design sites that combine functionality, accessibility and engaging, on-brand visuals.
We help organisations design intranets, communication sites, pages and portals that look great and are easy to use. We combine technical expertise with creative design principles to create modern experiences with SharePoint Online.
Visual Design
First impressions count. A landing page that looks great is the first step to high engagement. From homepage facelifts to full intranet overhauls, we help internal communications teams design sites and page templates that wow.
User Experience Design
Our in-house user experience (UX) team use employee feedback, insights and data to design engaging, people-friendly solutions. From intranets to document management systems and site navigation, our UX services make SharePoint easier to use for every employee.
Accessibility
Accessible design makes tech inclusive for every employee. Our UX team embed accessibility in every solution we build, ensuring SharePoint looks great and is easy to use for all.
Beacon
Beacon is our SharePoint design tool that helps internal communicators create engaging, on-brand page layouts with ease. Beacon integrates seamlessly with new or existing intranets to go beyond SharePoint out-of-the-box.
Our Clients
Elevate Your Site Design
Book a session with one of our experts to see what’s possible with SharePoint
How to Design a People-Friendly Intranet
Catch up on our webinar with Internal Comms expert Carly Murray on how to sort your SharePoint out and create a people-friendly intranet that works for your business and your employees.
SharePoint Design Examples
Looking for inspiration? Compare SharePoint out-of-the-box with custom SharePoint design ideas, download our lookbook, get best practice tips from our guide to intranet design, and see how we’ve helped other organisations create their dream site.
Out-Of-The-Box
Use Microsoft’s ready-made templates, or build your own with standard web parts
Custom Design
Design Lookbook
Get inspired for your next design with our Beacon lookbook. Full of best practice and design ideas to help you take SharePoint to the next level.
TP ICAP: 7 Day Design Transformation
See how TP ICAP transformed their intranet homepage in just 7 days.
Before & After
Say Goodbye to Boring SharePoint
Download our SharePoint design guide for tips on evolving your intranet, including best practices and art-of-the-possible
Ready to See the Art-of-the-Possible?
Book a meeting with a design expert
5 Benefits of Good Design
Enhance User Experience
An intuitive interface and streamlined navigation can make it easier for employees to interact with and move around your site. Clean layouts and clearly signposted content can help people easily find what they need.
If your employees have a positive experience, they’re more likely to come back on a regular basis.
Streamline Collaboration & Productivity
A well-designed SharePoint environment helps promote seamless collaboration between team members and departments, resulting in higher productivity. As well as a visually appealing front-end, having a clean and tidy back-end can improve issues like document sprawl and version control. Considering how your site looks and how it works as part of your design process can help employees find what they need, and collaborate with colleagues regardless of location or time zone.
Increase Employee Engagement
Design can help bring your organisational vision, mission and values to life. It helps your intranet become an extension of your culture. A site that feels welcoming and inviting will have higher engagement and better adoption than one that feels boring or generic.
Design can also help you bring personalisation into your page. Showing customised dashboards, relevant company tools and targeted news can all help increase employee engagement.
Centralised Information Management
If constructed well, SharePoint can be a single source of truth for documents, data and resources. This is true across all SharePoint use cases, whether it’s an intranet, a document or knowledge management system or a team site.
When planning your back-end structure, including things like permissions management and document versioning can help organisations ensure data security whilst promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Scalability & Flexibility
The beauty of SharePoint is that it can scale and flex as your business needs shift. Following good design principles from the outset can make growth an easier process. Whether it’s having on-brand templates ready to scale across new sites, or having a solid navigational structure to underpin your foundation.
3 Things to Consider for Your Next Design
Employee Needs & Requirements
The key to success is prioritising employee needs and requirements. Sometimes, this ends up being different to what the business wanted at the start of the project.
Understanding the challenges your people are facing with the current SharePoint environment means you can tailor your new design to address them effectively.
User research, gathering feedback, and involving key stakeholders throughout the process ensures your new intranet or site aligns with employee expectations, leading to better adoption and usability.
Information Architecture & Navigation
A well-structured information architecture (IA) and intuitive navigation are fundamental to any SharePoint site. Establishing clear hierarchies, organising content in a logical manner, and making navigation pathways clear and easy to follow will lead to a better experience.
Consistent labelling, logical grouping of content and good use of metadata can also help employees locate and search for the content they need.
Governance
Governance is paramount in good SharePoint design practices to accommodate future growth and ensure sustainability. Defining governance policies and establishing guidelines from content management are key.
This can help your intranet stay in good shape, and prevent sprawl and clutter from returning a few years down the line.
SharePoint Design FAQs
Can you add branding to SharePoint?
You can add basic branding to your page with OOTB features. Many organisations with detailed branding find the options too restrictive. In 2024, Microsoft are introducing SharePoint brand centre. Not all the details are available yet, but this may go some way to addressing these concerns.
If you choose to customise your site design, you can be more creative with how you apply company branding. You’ll have free choice of colours and fonts, ability to add gradients, choose between square and rounded edges and more. All of which make a huge difference to how employees receive an intranet.
Is SharePoint site design important?
Yes. First impressions count, and employees will make a judgement in just 0.5 seconds. If a page design is boring, outdated or cluttered, employees could switch off before they even get to the content.
But good intranet design isn’t just about looking good. It also includes functional design – or UX. Without good UX, employees may struggle to complete basic tasks like reading a news story or clicking on links.
UX design is the foundation to a practical, functioning intranet. Enhanced visual design is where higher levels of engagement come in.
Working with a SharePoint design specialist will help you create site templates that combine the best of visual and UX design.
Do you just offer SharePoint design?
We offer lots of other services around SharePoint Online, including:
Is design only important for intranets?
Good design is important regardless of how SharePoint is used. For things like document management, having files stored in logical locations that are easy to find and access is vital. All of that falls under the category of design.
What are your SharePoint design tips?
We always recommend starting with listening. Identify gaps or challenges with the current solution, what are employees missing, what do they need, what do they want. All of that information can be collated in a design that reflects an organisation’s people and values.
Aside from that, we’d always suggest:
- Avoid clutter – no one can find what they need if there’s too much content on the page
- Follow accessibility guidelines – a good looking intranet serves no purpose if it’s unusable
- Make use of white space – you don’t need to fill every gap on the page. White space can help make the important bits stand out
How much does SharePoint design cost?
It depends on your approach, and what you want to achieve. If you want to have a go yourself, you can use the ready-to-go Microsoft templates. For some organisations, these templates are a no-cost entry point to refreshing their intranet.
But, many organisations find these templates aren’t customisable and don’t fulfil their needs. If you want to work with a SharePoint design specialist to push OOTB components to the max, there will often be a one-off project fee.
If you want to go even further and use a tool like Beacon, these types of products usually come with an annual licence cost.
Do you need IT to manage SharePoint site design?
Not always. Some tools, like ours, make it easy for site owners to manage branding and design. This means you don’t need lots of technical expertise to make SharePoint look great.
What are the resources and timelines to design an intranet?
It depends on how ambitious you are with your design.
Are you using out-of-the-box features? Are you using a design tool, like Beacon? Do you need something completely custom? How many page templates do you need?
It can be as quick as 7 days in some cases.
In terms of resources, we typically work alongside senior stakeholders from Internal Comms, IT and HR. We will provide UX and EX expertise, and any technical M365 resource needed for custom design elements. Every project we deliver has a project manager, too.
Is it easier to redesign or start from a blank slate?
It’s often easier to start from a blank slate. This means you can go back and get the foundations right. Making your intranet look great won’t make too much difference if the underlying architecture is still a mess.
It’s also a good chance to reevaluate. Which sites, pages and portals do you still need?
Are custom designed sites as easy to update?
Using a design tool, like Beacon, can make it even easier. You don’t need any development or technical skills at all. It’s really easy for internal communicators and intranet managers to update without any IT support.
If you’re sticking with OOTB web parts, the experience in modern SharePoint is much more user friendly than in the old days of classic SharePoint.
What is SharePoint Brand Centre?
SharePoint Brand Centre is a centralised brand management app. It gives you greater control over how your SharePoint experiences look and feel. With brand centre, you can manage things like colours, fonts, images, and other brand assets all in one central location.
Brand centre will need to be enabled in your tenant. You can work with your IT colleagues to get it switched on.
It’s a new feature, so it’s likely to see changes and updates throughout 2024.
Download the Design Lookbook
Ready to talk?
So are we. Get in touch today to discuss your SharePoint design needs.