One of the toughest challenges in comms is to take a very familiar format and make something that really stands out. A pitch deck, an annual report, a flyer for a conference or training event.
Your product can be as strong as you like, but if the packaging is dull, who’s buying?
This is the issue I faced when I was asked to produce the annual report for Women in Football (WIF). They’re an organisation with tons of amazing stories to tell. But even a PDF designed in the most attractive way is still a PDF.
To really bring those stories to life and keep users engaged, I settled on an online platform called Shorthand. As well as attractive layouts and cool infographics, you can incorporate video – making the whole thing more appealing from the off.
Here’s the front page of the report, with a video montage of WIF events immediately bringing dynamism and a sense of prestige and impact ▶
And rather than imposing a linear user journey, a Shorthand presentation incorporates navigation through a menu bar. Users who choose to work through the report from start to finish are prompted by links at the bottom of each section, but for those who want to focus on particular content, the menu bar makes that easy. A bit of interactivity always helps to keep people engaged, too.
In WIF’s annual report, I also used the organisation’s colour palette to give users a little extra orientation. Each of the four colours in the palette corresponds to a section within the report, so there’s a sense of location and progress as the user moves through the content.
▲ Part 1: Who we are
▲ Part 3: 2025-26 in focus
▲ Part 2: What we do
▲ Part 4: Looking ahead
Please check out the report in full – the beauty lies in its motion and interactivity, and you can’t really get the sense of that from screengrabs!
A Shorthand publication is essentially a sort of microsite, which works on a standalone basis, but in a way that’s consistent with your overall brand. You can link out from it to pages on your main site, and embed it within your domain. (If you really need a PDF, you can even export one from it.)
Shorthand publications are great for showcasing a particular offering while keeping the user focused. The standalone format helps to hold your audience’s attention, with no wider site navigation to distract them.
It’s also useful if you need to get content on the web quickly and your main website is unwieldy, or guarded by internal bureaucracy.
Even the people at Shorthand were impressed with the work I did – they asked if they could use a WIF annual report to showcase the product!
But what about the Women in Football team? Here’s the testimonial…
“The Women in Football Annual Impact Report brings such amazing value to WIF as an organisation. The report is a vital annual publication for us to celebrate our members and partners, while highlighting our key successes and growth from the past year. Pete Green was selected to produce the 2026 report due to an impressive portfolio of high-quality, engaging content, and we are delighted with the final product.
“Pete designed a structure that flows effortlessly as you work your way through the pages and executed the brief to perfection. The Shorthand platform allows us to tell our story in a truly interactive way, helping to bring the achievements of our past year to life.
“Working with Pete on the report was a pleasure. We mapped out a clear line of communication which made the build simple and efficient. Pete responded to all messages and requests promptly and was always clear in their messaging. We couldn’t recommend Pete highly enough.”
Community and Digital Marketing Manager
at Women in Football
