Displaying a Lock Icon with Navigation Links to Restricted Content

I saw this trick during a recent webinar or session, but I can’t remember who showed it. I think it’s useful enough to share. If it’s your trick, please let me know and I’ll give you credit!

Right now, we don’t have permission trimming in Hub Site navigation. It’s coming, but until it’s there sometimes we want to include links that not everyone can access.

It’s non-collaborative to do this; no one likes clicking on a link and being told they don’t have access. So why not make it clearer up front?

Enter emojis, something which I generally don’t think belong in a business setting all that often. Sure, I use them to convey emotion in emails and tweets, but in Intranet pages? Not so much. “Here are your HR benefits :)”?

However, since sometimes we have links not everyone can get to, why not make it clear with an emoji? For example, you can use the lock icon in these restricted access navigation items, like so.

Now when Todd clicks on that link, he’ll know he’s likely to have to jump through a hoop to actually get access beforehand: 🔒 Secret Stuff

If you’re running Windows 10, typing these emoji characters is pretty easy. Just use the Windows key + ;. (Thanks to Dennis Gaida @moontear for the tip that on some keyboards, it’s Win + .) That’s the key with the little Windows symbol on it and the semicolon. This will pop up the emoji keyboard and you can select the appropriate emoji. You can even click on the little magnifying glass and search for (in this case) “lock”.

Note that I said the appropriate emoji. PLEASE don’t use this trick to drop little hearts 💗 and unicorns 🦄 in your Intranet. Unless you’re in the “hearts and unicorns” business, anyway.

Icons like this can be excellent parts of the visual language to make your site more understandable and useful for your end users. Be consistent and sparing in the use of imagery (this is NOT MySpace) and you’ll find they have a better user experience.