What special considerations should be kept in mind when organizing report content for a website?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: Many websites, particularly company websites, function as informational reports, offering sections with information about the company and its history, products and services, executive team, and so on. Web readers are demanding. If they can't find what they're looking for in a few minutes, most site visitors will click away to another site. Reading online can be difficult. Studies show that reading speeds are about 25 percent slower on a monitor than on paper. Reading from computer screens can also be exhausting and a source of physical discomfort. The web is a nonlinear, multidimensional medium. Readers of online material move around in any order they please; there often is no beginning, middle, or end. In addition, many websites have to perform more than one communication function and therefore have more than one purpose. Each of these individual purposes needs to be carefully defined and then integrated into an overall statement of purpose for the entire website. Moreover, many websites also have multiple target audiences, such as potential employees, customers, investors, and the news media. You need to analyze each group's unique information needs and find a logical way to organize all that material. If you know that a sizable percentage of your target audience will access your site with mobile devices, take a mobile-first approach: design the site to work with tablets and smartphones, then make sure it functions well on conventional computer screens as well. Plan your site structure and navigation before you write. Let your readers be in control by creating links and pathways that let them explore on their own. Help online readers scan and absorb information by breaking it into self-contained, easily readable chunks that are linked together logically.