Intranet Application Design Layout

Wow.

That's a lot of info to post...

Basic things to consider:

* Basic layout: menu on the said that always stays in the same place, menu at the top, drop-down menus for drilling, or dynamic menus that change depending on the section you're in?
* Maintenance: who's in charge for updates?  Makes a difference on how complicated the layouts and scripting are.
* Static pages or database driven? A consideration to help answer the first 2 points.
* Is security an issue?  Will you have areas that are limited to only certain people?
* Do you want everything to look the same, or will each section have it's own look and feel?

...the list is never-ending...

No matter what your choices are, some "templates" that would be best for the long run:

* Try to share as much as possible.  i.e., use style sheets, use external .js files to hold your JavaScripts, etc.
* Try not to hard-code too much data, either in the page, scripts, or images.  Makes it harder to change later on.
* Don't give up content for style. As much as we all want our sites to look good, the main purpose of an intranet is to provide helpful information for your staff.
* Always ask: Can I expand/change this later?  When you finish a part, check to make sure it's easy to update.  You don't want to build something that takes just as long to update later on.
* If more than 1 person is in charge of building/maintaining/updating, pick a language that everyone knows and agrees on so you can share responsabilities.  Also, be sure to layout some kind of agreed-upon coding practices to you can look at the code and figure out what the other guy was trying to do.
* If you plan on letting other people take control of their sections of the site, think about using WYSIWYG editors on your page.  The easier it is for a normal user to change the info, the more likely they'll actually keep it updated, reducing calls to your desk.

Thank you for your suggestions. But could you show me some examples?