Reporting in a digital age
While there is an enduring place for the printed report, primarily because it is the most engaging, tangible and user-friendly format, there’s undoubtedly an irrevocable shift to digital solutions. But what does that mean in practice?
The options are many, varied and none of them perfect.
Or any combination of the above.
There are some obvious configurations that are worth adopting once the balance has tipped away from print being the prime delivery mechanism. The first is to switch to a landscape, screen-friendly orientation. The second is to increase the font size to ease on-screen reading, especially on smaller monitors. Both work for print while optimising screen readership.
The next step is to hyperlink content within the PDF to aid navigation. From there, a number of sophistication levels can be added to enable the PDF experience to become even richer.
The next step is more dramatic: having separate print and online versions, which duplicates the work required. This entails an online microsite, providing the native behaviours of a website experience.
One aspect of hybrid online and offline solutions for which there is no seamless solution is the linking from print report to supplementary online material. url links are cumbersome and require retyping. QR codes are ungainly and only link to content that is then displayed on a mobile device – not the optimum delivery of copious amounts of text.
You can delve deeper into digital-first reports in this blog:
Examples of Insight Creative’s screen-friendly reports:
Genesis Energy 2023 - Interactive Report
