A minor navigation detail makes a difference

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THREE minutes, that’s all the time the average web visitor to your fancy online annual report is going to give you.

Useless navigation

So when you see this kind of useless navigation on the chairman’s letter of a really big company you know the folks who put it together aren’t thinking about communicating, they’re just “doing web design.” See the image below.

What’s wrong with the above navigation? For starters, it tells you nothing except that there are five pages in the letter. There’s no indication of what information is provided on each page.

If there was, more people might be inclined to click through to them.

Now here’s what good navigation for a multi-page letter looks like:

See the difference? The one tells you nothing. The other gives you some sense of what you will find on each page and even reinforces some key messages.

I’ve said it before, things you don’t notice make a difference.

Dominic Jones

Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.