Graphic Design, UI Design and Software Integration
This company has an excellent business model based on both sides of the natural gas resources market. They operate large-scale facilities that gather and export liquid propane gas (LPG) to Asian markets, plus they also operate natural gas utility companies serving multiple states in the U.S. Their annual Sustainability Report is the primary document that needs to communicate effectively with a mixed Investor/Consumer/Community audience.
Key objectives: No greenwashing; keep the content clean and inviting for the reader; make the content easy to navigate; showcase the diversity of our workforce as well as our operations with as much of a nod to the environment as possible using pre-existing photography; support the written narrative, include design elements that reveal the new brand for our key stakeholder audiences.
The top NAV was expanded and playtested to ensure a consistent user experience, and UN Sustainability metrics were introduced to further communicate the Sustainability Goals were being addressed. In addition, the corporate website was revised to incorporate a more fullsome “Sustainability” section. As such, I was engaged to design and build these pages too. See below for a quick scan of some of the content.
The editorial team was collaborating within the cloud-based “Workiva” platform. I was familiar enough with this platform that I was able to provide my best guidance and designed solutions in order to maximize the key benefit of Workiva (100% data assurance) without suffering any of the cumbersome design integration restrictions. Perhaps someday, my many documented tips/conversations with the Workiva dev team will result in some desperately-needed design and interface improvements on their end. Things like: consistent measurement system, improved text-wrap, custom hyphenation and text kerning. You know… the basic stuff that a designer needs to do their job. It has been 12 months since I provided my comments and feedback. The Workiva Team sent me one message saying that they will pass my comments on to the dev team. No further follow-up and I have not seen any usable improvements in the software.
End-result: C-suite was very pleased with the new report and have chosen to highlight it in the Quarterly Results reporting for the next quarter. External stakeholder feedback has been positive thus far.
