Bayer: Simplifying content identification

Easily scanned listings speed up a Quicklinks feature.

The Site

Bayer, the German industrial group, includes an extensive Investor Relations area in its corporate site. A set of eight Service links provided in a right-hand navigation bar throughout the section offers useful utilities such as newsletter sign-up and SMS reminders of investor events.

One of these – Quicklinks – launches a small pop-up window featuring an A-Z listing of links to key pages and documents such as balance sheets, the New York Listing or the investor relations team. The window stays to the front when a link is selected; the new page has to be clicked to bring it forward. Where the link leads out of the investor section, the new page appears in a third window.

The Takeaway

In a section targeted at busy analysts who want to get to specific information as quickly as possible, the Quicklinks option puts the needs of the user first. Content categorisation is not standardised on investor relations sites, some of which bury information in improbable places. The easily-scanned alphabetical listing means users do not have to decide which link to click to get to the data they require

By delivering the list in a pop-up window Bayer avoids the main disadvantage of long lists – that they are unsightly on an already-busy page. The other objection is that new windows can create confusing ‘tiling’ – but if, as here, a new window is generated only when it clearly helps navigation, it is difficult to find objection.

First published on 16 March, 2006