The two bodies were the only ones in the UK to make the top 10 of a global survey by Nielsen Norman Group (NNG), a US design specialist, on public sector intranets. NNG said London Underground was the only local level winner on its list, but pointed out that London is "not exactly a small town".
The body that runs London's tube network won its place after making changes that resulting in the number of visits rising from 1,000 a week to 70,000.
London Underground was commended for the way it manages and encourages contributions to its intranet. This includes identifying a lead publisher responsible for content in their own area and training them to understand the principles of online usability and readability.
The Department of Transport was praised for saving £130,000 by relocating its employee newsletter to the intranet. The department's Transnet intranet is now a major internal communications tool, with links to daily press releases and publications and messages from senior managers.
NNG sifted entries from hundreds of government departments and agencies from around the world before announcing the result of this year's contest on 21 June, 2004, on its website. Entries were judged on their usability, look and feel and elegance.
In his report on the contest, judge Jakob Nielsen said: "We've seen other good intranets from large cities, including New York City… Unfortunately, however, most local governments don't seem to produce good intranets for their employees." The average size of the winning organisations was 5,200 employees, but their size varied from 400 to 15,000 staff and Nielsen said public sector bodies "do not have to be huge to have great intranets".
NNG says that while many citizen facing websites suffer because of "overwhelming" use of acronyms and insider jargon, it is "highly appropriate" to use specialist language on government intranets, where it often helps improve communication efficiency.
Other winners included the Government Offices of Sweden, Australia's Department for Victorian Communities and the US Senate Republican Conference.
