How to Design an Inspiring Annual Report

Designing an annual report is no small feat. Every year, foundations and nonprofits go through the same process of identifying stories, writing content, designing, and printing. This process can often feel laborious and repetitive, however, it doesn’t have to. Consider these six tips to design an engaging annual report — one that celebrates the work done and inspires action for the work ahead:

1. Choose a format that your audiences actually use.

Always strive to meet your audiences where they are. Do they read print? Are they online? Do they gather in-person? Understanding how your audiences choose to share and consume information will inform the format or platform you choose, making your report more accessible.

Photo credit Sharon Matthew.

2. Craft a compelling narrative.

This requires you to take a step back and ask ‘what is the purpose of the modern annual report?’ For some organizations, your report might serve as an artifact—something you create for historical documentation. For others, it might be about sharing the the origin story of your work, illustrating the connection between where you’ve been the past year and where your focus is moving forward. Honing in on its purpose will allow you to keep the message clear and the readers engaged.

Photo Credit Gian Jurado.

3. Visualize the story through photos and numbers.

People consume information in many different ways. Some prefer long-form content, while others prefer visual forms of storytelling. Using compelling photos and highlighting impressive numbers adds diversity to your annual report, creating interest and providing an easier entry point for your audiences.

Photo credit Hung Ngo.

4. Create interest through hierarchy and whitespace.

Similar to photos and numbers, typographic hierarchy and whitespace can also add interest to your annual report. By using bold type, you can quickly communicate powerful messages, emphasize important passages, and draw your readers’ eyes down the page. By using ample white space, you can affect the pacing of your annual report (and therefore, the speed at which your readers move through the content).

Photo credit Belu.

5. Serve “bite-size” stories.

People are inundated with information. By reformatting your annual report into smaller, more bite-sized stories, the chances of the information “sticking” is much higher. People are more likely to remember elements of your annual report if they’re presented in a digestible way.

Photo credit KRISHNAPRIYA (KP) DUTTA GUPTA.

6. Draw audiences in with suspense.

Not surprisingly, the first thing your readers see will set the tone for your entire annual report. When choosing a photograph, headline or graphic to use on your cover (or digital hub, depending on your format), consider what will draw your readers in. Thought-provoking visuals and statements will create a sense of suspense, encouraging readers to dive in.

With a little pre-planning and some imagination, every organization can design an inspiring annual report.

Are you struggling to infuse creativity in your annual report process? Drop us a line.

Throwing the Challenge Flag

Grocery stores are lined with pumpkins and Halloween endcaps. Coffee shops across the country have released autumnal treats. We’ve rolled right through false fall and into second summer.

That can only mean one thing: football season has arrived. Aside from the usual fantasy football office chatter, a surprising discussion around user research, UX/UI design, and heuristics has been prompted by some…er…interesting design decisions from ESPN’s Monday Night Football graphics package.

The first MNF game of the freshly minted NFL season featured a great matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Houston Texans, and a new graphics package for the ubiquitous scorebug at the bottom of televised sports events. Spectators rely on this line to keep track of the game clock, score, penalties, and something called the down-and-distance marker that shows what down it is and the distance to go for a first down. If you’re not a football fan and all of this seems confusing, all you need to know is the down-and-distance marker graphic changes to alert viewers when a penalty flag has been thrown by the referee and that these penalty flags that often litter the field are bright yellow. With this knowledge, it would seem fairly obvious then that when considering the design of this down-and-distance marker, there would be one color you should steer clear of unless a penalty flag has been thrown. So what color did ESPN used for their standard down-and-distance graphic?

You guessed it — yellow. It was a bit of a baffling design decision, especially for a network that deals exclusively with sports broadcasting. Making it even more confusing, because they decided to use yellow as their color of choice for normal use, they opted to use a black background to indicate when a penalty flag was thrown. Of course, it took no time at all for the twitter universe to explode with comments of confusion, derision, and pleas for change. In defense of ESPN, they heard those pleas, acted fast and changed their graphics package to a more standard black and white down-and-distance marker by the start of the second half. It even prompted an acknowledgment and direct twitter response from an ESPN communications director.

Our ESPN production team is aware of the feedback on the #MNF down and distance graphic. We have called an audible and adjusted for the 2nd half of #HOUvsNO and for the #DENvsOAK game to follow. New look pictured here. pic.twitter.com/SWLKKuW87w

— bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) September 10, 2019

For our team, this prompted some thoughts on a few different topics — the first being user research. Obviously, we weren’t privy to what sort of design thinking and user research went into the creation of this scorebug graphics package, but it’s hard to believe it was very extensive if public reaction is a reliable metric. Iteration is an important sub-step in the design thinking process, and certainly ESPN showed their willingness to adapt and iterate on the fly. Though it would have been preferable to do this in a user research and prototyping phase, the old adage “better late than never” generally rings true. In addition to user research, careful consideration of UX/UI design and heuristics would have likely helped to avoid this calamity (Okay, maybe not a calamity, but this is football and a little drama comes with the territory). A couple of the tenants of UX heuristics laid out by famed computer scientist and usability consultant Jakob Nielsen are as follows:

Match the system and the real world, and
Establish consistency and standards.

This graphics package did a poor job of matching the information presented by the color system in the scorebug and the real-world color system of the physical penalty flags, and at the same time created a divide in consistency and standards that have long been established in the football world. This just goes to show the importance and impact that user research, design thinking, and UX/UI heuristics considerations can have on all projects. It’s something we always have in mind as we work hand in hand with our partners to innovate towards new design solutions and opportunities.

Thankfully this debacle (again, drama) has been put behind us for now — at least until the next questionable sports graphic decision makes headlines. Hey, the NBA season is just around the corner! We’ll keep our eyes peeled.

Elevating Your Brand through Typography

Why does typography matter?

Typography is often thought of as a designer’s obsession. We nerd out over things like tight kerning, seamless ligatures, and striking hierarchies. While it may sound technical, here are three reasons why typography (as well as font selection) matter to your organization and your audiences:

1. It helps to express your personality and voice as an organization.

Much like with verbal communication, it isn’t only about what you say that matters but also how you say it that greatly affects how information is digested. This is also applies to written and visual communication. Elements of typography such as the layout of your text as well as the fonts you use can all greatly affect this. Through the use of effective and mindful typography, you can better convey to your audience the voice and personality of your organization.

2. It helps build credibility and displays professionalism of your organization.

Whether you like it or not, people often deem the credibility and professionalism of companies and organizations based solely on appearances, even if they have had no prior knowledge or past engagements. As this is the case, typography often plays an important role in this. Your audience could easily mistaken poorly executed typography with an unwarranted lack of credibility of your organization. However, effectively used type can greatly boost your organization’s appearance which would in turn make it more credible and professional in the eyes of your audience.

3. It makes your content easier to understand for your audience.

As it is essential to be able to effectively communicate to your audience, typography can play a huge factor in this. Through typography, it can help to create a hierarchy of information, which would help in conveying what is important to you and your organization. Through hierarchy that’s created through typography, this helps to break down large bodies of text into smaller and easier to digest content. Through this, it ultimately allows for your organization to better convey who you are to your audience.

Don’t have a budget for typography? Here are some free resources to consider.

Whether you’re developing your new brand or looking to broaden your font collection, free fonts are a cost-effective way to add to your design toolbox—because they’re free! Since there are countless websites that offer free fonts, it can sometimes be an overwhelming search to find ones that are both high quality and on-brand. Why is it so difficult? Most free font websites don’t include licensing for their fonts (which gives you permission to use it legally) or offer a poor selection of fonts to choose from. To make browsing for free fonts easier, here are a couple of quality resources to check out! If there’s any other resources that you feel should also be mentioned, please post a comment below.

The Highlights Reel

A Few Favorites from 2018

As we gear up for an exciting year ahead — we also want to say THANK YOU to all of those who trusted us, partnered with us, or simply followed along and cheered for us in 2018. Take a peek at some of our favorite designs from last year.