Re-designing knowledge management systems : Towards user-centred design methods integrating information architecture

Abstract : The work presented in this paper focuses on the improvement of corporate knowledge management systems. For the implementation of such systems, companies deploy can important means for small gains. Indeed, management services often notice very limited use compared to what they actually expect. We present a five-step redesigning approach which takes into account different factors to increase the use of these systems. We use as an example the knowledge sharing platform implemented for the employees of Société du Canal de Provence (SCP). This system was taken into production but very occasionally used. We describe the reasons for this limited use and we propose a design methodology adapted to the context. Promoting the effective use of the system, our approach has been experimented and evaluated with a panel of users working at SCP.