A great annual report is rarely complete without accurate, compelling data visualization. In fact, typically the two go hand-in-hand. But the best annual report designs aren’t just about graphs and charts. The most compelling reports contain illustrations, icons, interactive elements such as embedded video or clickable maps — and often all of the above!
But why even care about the design of your annual report? It might not seem like your shareholders, much less your internal stakeholders, care about how it looks so much as the information it contains. But while that may be true for some of them, a well-designed annual report accomplishes a few key things:
- It makes large and complex datasets easy to understand through accurate data visualization.
- It helps viewers recognize trends and opportunities in the data.
- It drives comprehension and increases engagement, since every audience is more responsive and more naturally attuned to process visual content.
So whether your annual report takes the form of an infographic or an interactive landing page, so long as it’s visual, you’ll see better ROI for your efforts.
If you want to learn more about how to produce this type of content, you can check out our visual annual report crash course, or explore the articles below.