When building or auditing an annual reports page, two common issues arise: a cluttered or text-heavy layout, and apparent gaps in the document archive. The VCEDC website project surfaced both, and the resolutions offer a reusable pattern.
Annual reports pages that list reports as inline text or links can feel sparse or disorganized once older content is removed. A tile-based layout — one tile per report year, each containing the year label and a download or view link — provides a cleaner, more scannable structure.
During the VCEDC pre-launch review, the decision was made to replace the existing spread-out layout with tiles for each report year. This approach scales gracefully as new reports are added annually and makes it easy to visually distinguish report years at a glance.
Implementation note: Each tile should accommodate both PDF links and video embeds or links, since report formats may vary by year (see below).
Not every annual report is a PDF. Some organizations produce video summaries in lieu of a downloadable document. When auditing a report archive, a missing PDF for a given year may simply mean that year's report was published in video format.
In the VCEDC case, the 2022 annual report was produced as a video rather than a PDF, which explained its absence from the PDF list. The tile layout accommodates this naturally — the 2022 tile links to the video rather than a download.
Practical checklist when auditing an annual reports archive:
- Confirm whether any years used video, microsite, or other non-PDF formats before flagging a gap
- Ensure the tile design supports both PDF download links and video links/embeds
- Clarify with the client how far back the archive should go (VCEDC discussed dropping reports older than five years as new ones are added)
Client: [1]
Context: Pre-launch website review, December 2025
Decision: Update annual reports page layout to use tiles per report year; treat 2022 video report as a valid archive entry rather than a missing document.