SharePoint has evolved past being just a document management platform. Today, it is a powerful workplace platform that allows teams to collaborate, securely store files, share knowledge, track updates, and streamline workflows.
However, accessing SharePoint effectively remains a challenge for a lot of teams and members.
The good news is that you can add widgets to enhance your SharePoint platform’s features and functionality to complement your workflows.
In this article, we’ll cover the most essential SharePoint widgets to add to your workspace, including how to customize them and avoid common integration issues.
TL;DR – Top SharePoint Widgets
Prioritize SharePoint widgets that enhance your workspace’s UX and functionality. Here are the top ones to consider:
- Back-to-top Button
- Tooltips
- FAQs
- Announcement
- Feedback
- Table of Contents
- Vote Button
- Product Updates
- Changelog
- Events Calendar
Keep reading for an in-depth review of how each widget helps increase your SharePoint platform’s user engagement and team’s productivity.
What are SharePoint Widgets?
SharePoint widgets are customizable plugins that you can integrate into a SharePoint workspace to add new features and functionality or enhance its UX.
The key benefit of adding SharePoint widgets is that you need not modify your workspace’s backend, as the plugins are mainly plug-and-play.
The SharePoint widgets you add could enhance your workspace in the following ways:
- Contextual Information: Use the widgets to share key announcements, answer FAQs, or highlight product updates.
- Interactive Platforms: Add widgets to collect feedback or let users vote on a topic or issue.
- Navigational Tools: These are SharePoint widgets that help users navigate the workspace with ease, such as a button that allows them return to the top.
Generally, SharePoint widgets help improve members’ productivity and your workspace’s overall user experience.
How to Add SharePoint Widgets to a Site
Adding SharePoint widgets is straightforward and requires a few minutes, even for users without advanced technical skills. Webynize offers user-friendly widgets that let you set up and customize your plugins without writing any code.
The first section will cover creating SharePoint widgets, and the second will outline how to add the plugins to your workspace.
Creating a SharePoint Widget on Webynize
Here’s a step-by-step guide for creating SharePoint widgets using Webynize:
- Sign up for Webynize and enjoy a 7-day unlimited access to our widgets.
- Click on +Create Widget to go to our widget library.
- Open the dropdown menu and select the widget you want from the list of available options.
- Input a name for the SharePoint widget and click on Next to launch the customization panel.
- Personalize the SharePoint widget to your preference by selecting your preferred background color and font settings.
- Click Embed on Website and specify SharePoint.
- Copy the embed script that appears on the pop-up.
Adding SharePoint Widgets to Your Workspace
Follow these steps to add the widgets to SharePoint:
- Go to your SharePoint site and click Edit on the top right of the page.
- Hover over the webpage and click the + where you want to place the widget.
- Paste the embed code you generated from Webynize.
- Save and publish the changes so the widget goes live on your SharePoint workspace.
How to Customize SharePoint Widgets for Better UX
Once you have added SharePoint widgets to your workspace, you must then customize them so they serve their intended purpose and enhance your team’s productivity.
Here are a few ways to optimize your SharePoint widgets’ performance:
- Personalize the Widgets: Curate the widgets to the intended end-user. For example, HR teams should only view HR-related information, and the same applies to other departments such as IT and finance. You can also customize FAQs based on departmental needs.
- Add Relevant CTAs: Include clear calls-to-action statements, such as “Submit Feedback”, “Register for Event”, and “View Full Update” to guide users’ next steps.
- Strategic Placement: Position high-priority widgets, such as announcements and product updates, near the top to make them almost unmissable. Similarly, add navigation widgets like the back-to-top button where users naturally expect them, such as the bottom left of the workspace.
- Conditional Loading: Configure your SharePoint widgets to “lazy loading,” so that they only execute when users get to that section, reducing their impact on the workspace’s speed and performance.
Top SharePoint Widgets for Enhanced Productivity
Some of the widgets you should consider adding to your SharePoint site to improve its functionality include:
1. Back-to-top Button
Add a Back-to-top button that allows users to return to the top of a long page instantly. It is a helpful widget for knowledge pages and policy pages that often have long-form content.
Ensure the widget is positioned prominently at the bottom of the page, in either the bottom-left or bottom-right corner.
2. Tooltips
Use a Tooltips widget to provide workspace users with additional information or context whenever they hover over icons or text.
Such widgets are excellent at minimizing clutter within a page because they only pop up when you need an explanation for complex terms.
3. FAQs
An FAQ widget provides answers to commonly asked questions about your products and services in a collapsible or searchable format. It is ideal for your onboarding hubs, HR portals, and IT help pages.
Your responses to the FAQs will free your support teams to handle more complex issues. It also improves self-service, thereby encouraging users to visit your site more frequently.
4. Announcement
An Announcement widget is effective for highlighting important messages, such as company news, policy updates, or maintenance alerts. It also centralizes communication across all departments, ensuring everyone gets the memo.
Lastly, announcement widgets can be time-bound, such as appearing for 24 hours, and then they get archived.
5. Feedback
A Feedback widget allows users to submit suggestions, report issues, or share opinions about your site, products, or services without having to fill out a lengthy form.
This provides real-time insights into how your site works, allowing you to respond to issues quickly.
6. Table of Contents
A Table of Contents widget generates a list of headings and subheadings on a page, allowing users to jump directly to specific sections of a blog or other document.
It also enhances content navigation, allowing users to go back and forth between different topics if they need to refresh their memory or confirm some information.
7. Vote Button
A Vote button widget helps you conduct quick polls, such as asking employees to express their support or opposition to a new initiative or other pertinent issues, including ideas, priorities, or preferences.
The Vote button encourages member engagement and makes them feel integral to the team.
8. Product Updates
A Product Update widget is effective for informing users about new features, improvements, or changes related to internal tools or products.
You could include links to the official press release or other web pages where users can get detailed information about the updates.
9. Changelog
A Changelog widget displays product updates chronologically, so that users can track when and who made the changes.
Additionally, you can track analytics to see which updates users interact with most, providing insights into which features to prioritize.
10. Events Calendar
An Events Calendar widget displays upcoming meetings, seminars, webinars, or training sessions in a visual calendar format.
This provides a central hub for members to keep track of upcoming events, increasing attendance rates.
The SharePoint widgets we’ve listed above should help you seal integration gaps in your current tech stack or add new features to your workspace.
However, you need to find the right widget provider for SharePoint plugins that are easy to set up and customize without compromising loading speed and performance.
Webynize SharePoint widgets are built by veteran developers behind SociableKIT, with over a decade of experience in SaaS and web development. Our widgets use simple embed codes that make them easy to integrate and are lightweight, so that they don’t impact your SharePoint workspace’s UX and performance.
Create a widget today and add new features and functionality to your SharePoint workspace without writing any code.
Best Practices for Using SharePoint Widgets
Scattered placement can confuse users, while outdated announcements can mislead them or erode trust. Smart teams follow specific practices that maximize widget value and boost members’ productivity and performance:
Use these tips to get the most value from your SharePoint widgets:
- Only Add the Widgets You Need: Having multiple widgets does not always mean you will improve user experiences. Sometimes you may add redundant widgets, overloading your workspace. Instead, prioritize the widgets you need and then add more plugins over time based on emerging functionality gaps.
- Ensure Mobile Friendliness: Account for widget responsiveness, readability, loading speed, touch-friendly buttons and links, and menus that do not overlap on smaller screens.
- Customize the Widgets: Adjust your widgets’ colors, layouts, titles, and labels to match your SharePoint workspace’s theme. The adjustments should also be user-friendly; for example, the colors should not be so bright or too dark that they hinder readability.
- Provide Context: Include short descriptions, headings, or guides that explain each widget’s purpose and how it works. This will help increase adoption by users and reduce the need for hosting training sessions.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using SharePoint Widgets
Even well-optimized SharePoint widgets can fail when placed in the wrong section or out of context.
Avoid these common pitfalls when setting up SharePoint widgets:
- Embedding Too Many Widgets on a Web Page: Overloading your SharePoint workspace with widgets can slow page load times, frustrate users, and hinder efficient work. It can also overwhelm users with too much information, reducing engagement.
- Not Customizing The Widgets: Using the SharePoint widgets’ default settings can make them feel generic and out of place. Instead, personalize the widgets’ appearance to your preferences, including setting a custom background color and font.
- Embedding Non-Responsive Widgets: Static widgets result in overlapping design elements when users view your SharePoint widget on mobile. Ensure the SharePoint widgets use a mobile-first approach so they auto-adjust to different screen sizes, giving users a consistent experience.
- Not Accounting for Impact on UX: Every SharePoint widget you add impacts user experience in some way. As such, embedding low-priority widgets clutters your workspace without adding value to users. Instead, prioritize the most essential widgets, such as a Table of Contents for long-form content or a Changelog widget for product updates.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are answers to common questions about SharePoint widgets:
Can I Use SharePoint Widgets on Team Sites?
Yes. You can use SharePoint widgets on Team sites.
Microsoft Teams allows users to add published SharePoint pages, including widgets, as individual tabs in Teams channels.
Do SharePoint Widgets Work on Mobile Devices?
Yes. SharePoint widgets are responsive to mobile devices.
The plugins make the feed dynamic, so that it auto-responds to different screen sizes, giving users a consistent experience across devices.
How Do I Fix a Broken SharePoint Widget?
There are several ways to fix a broken SharePoint widget, depending on the underlying issue.
For example, some issues may be resolved by refreshing the page and clearing your browser cache; others by republishing the plugin, which means uninstalling the widget and adding it back later.
Are There Third-Party SharePoint Widgets Available?
Yes. There are numerous SharePoint widgets available that you could add to enhance your workspace’s features or functionalities, such as:
- Back-to-top button
- Exit-intent form
- Changelog software
Conclusion
The right SharePoint widgets can streamline your workspace’s navigation and provide the tools your team needs, boosting your team’s overall productivity and performance.
Webynize offers easy-to-use SharePoint widgets that you can set up and customize within 2 minutes without writing any code. Our widgets have a proven track record of increasing engagement and conversion, and reducing churn.
Additionally, all widgets are mobile-optimized to give users a seamless experience regardless of their device.
Sign up for Webynize and access our library of 20+ SharePoint widgets you can add to your workspace.
