Phil’s Top Ten Best Practices for Branding SharePoint (Part 3 of 10)

This next best practice in my top 10 list is definitely a matter of opinion on my part. The best practice revolves around SharePoint themes, and my inability to understand how they can be a benefit to someone. The reason why I struggle to see the value with themes is that every company that I have ever consulted for has always wanted to have their brand consistently applied throughout their entire farm. In their case, themes propose a problem because any end user that has full control anywhere can apply a theme on their site and in effect change mess with the company’s brand. Now I am fully aware that not all companies, especially small ones, are always terribly nit-picky about their brand. However, I do feel confident that from what I’ve seen, most are. Most companies desire a consistent and professional experience for their end users. I’m not a usability expert by any means, but my guess is that variation in the look and feel on an intranet cause more confusion that it does excitement and pleasure. Whenever I bring up the concept of themes to various organizations they all almost unanimously ask how to disable them even before I can tell them that it is even an option.