The Medium and the Message
posted by: Nick Roman on 2/1/2010
I’ve been recently pondering about whether to buy an eBook reader, like the Amazon Kindle DX . It is undoubtedly a clever use of technology; it is slimmer than a book, it can hold the equivalent content of several thousand books, I can download new titles on the move, and it ends the age-old problem of the bookmark dropping out from between the pages.
And yet, for all these enhancements, there is something that still appeals to me about thumbing through the physical pages of a paper book that the eBook reader experience fails to match. This isn’t a case of Luddite rebellion (I don’t clip a gramophone to my belt when I’m listening to music on the move…) but for now, it is just a more pleasant way of consuming large quantities of written information and, especially if it is a work document that I need to comment on, highlighting and scribbling over the paper wins hands-down over on-screen annotation.
I think the same principles apply when considering how different stakeholders consume reports in general; some of the target users will be actively engaged in interpreting and actioning the results, and may need access to online reports and tools that easily allow them to interact with or perform their own analysis on the data. Other stakeholders will simply want a printed summary document of the key information they could read whilst traveling, and some may need ways of effectively delivering information in a face-to-face meeting, such as a PowerPoint presentation.
To me, this highlights a key consideration when delivering results to a diverse user base. As well as the report content, the key to maximizing adoption of the information is to deliver the most effective medium that matches the specific needs of the audience.