Corporate website trend: From text to active content

Summary: Moving ‚from text to active content‘ is the second corporate website trend we identified. This post is part of a series of blog posts in which we look at trends for corporate websites.

Most corporate websites do not lack content but often it is just text. In times when attention seems to be in short supply, this is not a great strategy to build transparency and trust among stakeholders. Moreover, users of corporate websites cannot always be put into one bucket. It used to be the case that journalists would go to the Media section, analysts and investors to the Investor Relations section and people related to sustainability to the Sustainability section. But these days investors or careers seekers might well be interested in sustainability issues. It is difficult for them though to digest a 200 page strong sustainability report. This might be useful for a small audience, but not to the majority of visitors.

Therefore, companies should review their content and identify opportunities to provide complex information and data in a more digestible way. Currently, the most common approach involves flat infographics. Below you see an example  from General Electric:

But make sure to check out all the other visualizations including videos and interactive graphs on GE Blogs. They will give you a feel of how data can be presented in a very different way.

HP is another example of providing potentially difficult to understand information in a more digestible way using very simple graphs and figures.

Last but not least I would like to show you an example from BP.

After the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico BP have come under heavy criticism. The disaster did not only destroy parts of the Gulf but also BP’s reputation. It’s interesting to note that the company still has a link in the primary navigation, where readers can get information and updates regarding the recovery work of the company.  But our topic is on active content today, so I would like to draw your attention to BP’s data and mapping tools. Both tools, the HSE charting tool and the Sustainability mapping tool are interesting examples of providing data in a rich format. The HSE charting tool is certainly not meant for the average reader. Explanations are missing to make it meaningful to a wider audience. But the Sustainability mapping tool is easy to use and understand. Now it is up to the reader to deep dive into the content to his heart’s content.

Corporate websites usually don’t lack content. Quite the opposite actually. But too often information is meaningful only to a particular small audience like investors or CSR professionals. Extracting key messages and presenting content in more digestible ways using visualisation or manipulating graphs and data should be on companies‘ agenda when considering a relaunch of their corporate websites. The more accessible content is for readers, the more it engages them and might even encourage them to share it with their networks.

This blog post is part of a series of posts in which we delve into the trends for corporate website that we have identified. The series:

1. From static to real-time information
2. From text to active content
3. From channel to canvas
4. From desktop to mobile
5. From single source of truth to the provider of different opinions
6. From destination to platform
7. From providing information to providing a service
8. From company centric design to user centric design
9. From single launch to continuous improvement

© Picture Credit: Lauren Manning