Is Your Message Lost In Your 20th-Century Digital Document Navigation Design?

​21st-Century Digital Document  Navigation Style Guide

21st-Century digital document design improves navigation and readability of proposals, consulting reports, technical and procedural documents.

Today’s technology enables readers to easily consume more information faster. Technical mobility enables access to important business PDF documents at any time on just about any device.

Using traditional document design slows down the mobile reader’s ability to navigate through digital documents to consume information. Smart use of today’s document design functions helps readers to effortlessly navigate through and consume critical information presented in PDF formatted proposals, consulting reports, technical, and procedural documents.

One reviewer's comments, "I really like problem/solution you have crafted. And yes, I can relate..! So many times I have read and then given up on an e-doc for the reasons you cited. The format you propose is much better. I can see that it saves time, but more than that it addresses the issue of folks given up on reading through lengthy e-docs that though they contain good content the poor design of the document (those walls of text) turn readers away."

Our first project in this area was to help a public safety geographical information systems data (address data) client improve their team’s productivity by eliminating the extensive time wasted scrolling through digital policies and procedures in search of desired content. We provided a solution produced in Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat. We provided a prototype, design guide, and 2 training sessions. The director agrees that this model has enabled his team to recapture a substantial amount of time from scrolling through documents and has redirected that effort to more productive activity.

Since then, we’ve captured and analyzed the navigation of thousands of digital documents from industry, government, professional associations, businesses, etc. We tested a number of these PDFs along with improvements we learned for our design. Our testing involved having reading audiences open PDFs on their choice of device. We focused on how easily it was to: 

• Visually scan the documents to understand what they contained
• Navigate to and through the documents to get to desired content

Digital Document Design Cons:

• Artistry may indicate the document’s quality but only matters for a split second. In some cases, artistry confuses digital document navigation.
• The first page of a document has between 2 seconds on a mobile phone to 5 seconds on a mobile tablet or laptop to convey a message to the reader.
• The reader will immediately go to the second page expecting to see the table of contents. If the table of contents is not on page 2 or if it is but doesn’t have links to the contents, the reader will quickly start scrolling. A small degree of frustration starts here. With no obvious navigation assistance, chances of losing the reader’s attention starts and increases quickly, especially with longer documents.
• If the table of contents is on the second page and has links, the reader will tap a link to get to a topic. If that topic is not of interest or if the reader wants to see other topics, they will have to scroll to get back to the table of contents. Again, a small degree of frustration will start. With no other obvious navigation assistance, depending on the document length, chances of losing the reader’s attention increases. In many cases, the reader closes the document planning to read it when they have more time.
• Table of Contents (hyperlinked) or bookmarks with chapters labeled, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. This tells the reader nothing and is annoying.
• Hyperlinked page number buttons in the header or footer with no page descriptions. Still forcing the reader to play the guessing game to understand where content is in the document.

Digital Document Design Pros:

• Use landscape orientation. More than likely, the reader is using a mobile phone and will turn the phone horizontally because of more horizontal reading space.
• Use bookmarks with chapter and sub-chapter labels that describe the content. This is a semi-pro. Many mobile devices can’t read PDFs or PDF bookmarks without additional software.
• Put the table of contents on page 2. Use hyperlinked table of contents with chapter and sub-chapter labels that describe the content.
  • Add one line under each chapter that provides a summary.
  • Also add a button on each page that, when tapped, takes the reader back to the table of contents.
• Place a hyperlinked mini-table of contents on every page except the table of contents. This tells the reader what content is in the document and, with a finger tap, instantly gets them there.
  • Include a link to the master table of contents.
  • Include a link to the cover page.

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Downloadable Examples:

• Process Delivery Systems – E-Document Design for Shorter Attention Spans: https://www.processdeliverysystems.com/uploads/1/3/2/9/132974232/pds_bus_e-docs_short_attention_span.pdf
• Twenty-First Century Healthcare - Guidance on Payer Core System Project Strategy and Execution https://hceg.org/wp-content/uploads/AF18_Whitepaper_ChangeHealthcareConsulting.pdf
• McKesson - The Value Mandate ​https://assets.sourcemedia.com/e1/4f/9935a8774253ae591989e58a1ba6/d33237-mckesson-ebook-final.pdf

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