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Explore the Call to Action web part in SharePoint, its key features, and innovative use cases. Discover how to create dynamic, user-friendly intranet designs with minimal configuration.
Having built SharePoint Intranets for over 10 years I have been presented with numerous improvements within the Microsoft 365 Modern Experience, with the key building blocks in SharePoint provided in the form of Web Parts.
The Webparts Unlocked series of blogs provides me the opportunity to give an overview of each available out-of-the-box Web Part and make suggestions in how I would typically use them in my Intranet designs.
The aim of this series is to inspire different designs and provide the art of the possible, as opposed to technically detailing how each web part is configured.
Quite simply this web part is available to combine an image, some text, and a button with a link associated, and that is it. The web part is simply a “what you see is what you get” component, but used in the right way can complement a varied set of intranet designs.
This web part is commonly a go to within my art of the possible demonstrations when delivering workshops and training. The key reason for this is the ability to easily demonstrate the ease of adding and configuring these components, typically a few minutes to complete, alongside seeing the various ways in which they can be used.
I have a few favourite web parts that I use frequently in my design, and this is definitely one of them. This web part is quick to configure, provides great functionality to allow users to be signposted to content and incorporates images to help bring an intranet design to life.
As previously detailed the key use case for this web part is to create an interactive component, that will direct users to content within your organisation, be it links internally within your intranet or to external systems and sites that are frequently used.
The use of imagery and buttons within the web part provides a more improved design in comparison to placing a hyperlink within text, allowing the content to stand out, drawing the attention of users.
Combining this web part with varying page sections and layouts will provide differing results, helping your SharePoint pages remaining engaging. Some of examples of this will be explored below.
The most common approach for this web part is to provide a few links that stand out from other content on the page, if using this web part minimally.
The combination of the Call-to-action web Part alongside some text or quick links will easily draw the attention of users and can also be used to demonstrate importance.
In the example below, you will see a call-to-action component being used alongside a set of quick links. Notice how the eye is drawn to the call to action first, and how it appears to be more important compared to the next set of smaller links.
In this case it is linking to a page covering “Out Mission, Vision and Values” but could be used to request feedback, or complete surveys.
As a final note on this use case, consider the need to highlight messages or links to systems for a short time period.
You may take the decision to add a call to action to announce a new system being released in the organisation, before it becomes a regular quick link, or to announce a specific survey such as voting for the end of year awards ceremony.
In these situations, the call to action can be added for a period and then removed when it is no longer applicable.
This approach drives user adoption even more, as typical users will identify that they have not seen that button before and will decide to read it and click on it!
I have read a few differing opinions relating to the amount of call-to-action web parts that should be placed on the page. Several articles define that only a minor amount should be in place to then ensure that they stand out, as per the first use case I described. However, I believe there are benefits to using multiple groups/zones of call-to-action web parts if the Intranet design lends itself to it. In the example below, you will note the comparison between a hero banner web part and a call-to-action web part. As part of my SharePoint training, I will frequently refer to this platform “holding the hands” of its users, with the prime example being that configuration options are limited and what you are shown is what can be accomplished. In the case of the hero banner, you can have up to tile displayed, so if you had 6 or more core links then perhaps a set of call-to-action web parts would be more appropriate. Intranet designers may decide to use the hero banner or a call-to-action zone as the header, picking one of the designs below and then continuing with additional content. However, why not have both? The next example shows another zone of call-to-action links being generated, in this scenario the use of a Vertical Section has been used to include these images and buttons. This dedicated section provides easy access to a set of links, but also allows for lots of imagery to be used to help keep your intranet more engaging and allows other colours to be introduced amongst a standard theme. As per usual whilst writing blogs and designing intranets I will ask myself “I wonder what . . . will look like?” and then will give that suggestion a go, so would stress those that are reading this do the same! With that in mind, here is another example using a couple of groups of call-to-action web parts, producing an entirely different design of pages to those that came before.
A final use case is to use the call-to-action web parts to break up content on the page, introducing imagery to split up sections and text. This approach can be useful within pages where you have to provide a lot of written content, so to make this more engaging the use of imagery will help, and provide a chance for the users’ eyes to rest as they are reading through each paragraph. Furthermore, as these web parts include links, it will allow users to navigate to related content. See the image below that demonstrates this. Imagine using numerous SharePoint Pages to deliver information about processes and act as an e-learning platform with a mixture of text, embedded documents and videos. In most cases organisations not only need to provide the information, but also perform checks that content has been read and understood, therefore each of these call-to-action content dividers could be used to point towards a set of Microsoft Forms, enabling your users to be quizzed on what they have just read. You do not need to be limited to a single column divide either. Experiment with the use of 2 and 3 column sections to provide even more links and imagery. Here is the same page above again, with some different column layouts in place. Do you think this minor change makes a big difference? To bring this blog post to an end, lets focus on bringing the various use cases above together into one Intranet Home Page Design shown in the image below. What do you think?
In summary, although a very simplistic and easy to configure web part, the call to action can serve a multitude of purposes and really help bring your intranet to life with great imagery, colour and purpose.
As previously stated within this blog, I believe that the call to action web part should be a primary feature of any SharePoint Intranet, and if you have not explored the use of it yet then I implore you to spend a few minutes (you do not need long!) to experiment with this component and share some of your designs and findings.
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