4 ways to boost user experience for your publications

In MARKETING
1 March 2018
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Digital design is always evolving and in recent years user experience has been a major focus. Also known as UX, user experience involves improving how people interact with digital products and services. And it’s become a key investment for modern businesses. That’s because a great user experience can encourage visitors to spend more time on your website, help them view your brand positively and even increase sales.

Luckily for our publishers, Calaméo offers an exceptionally user-friendly HTML5 reader that allows their documents to shine on every device. But there are a few simple steps you can take to create an even better experience for your online audience! Learn about four essential UX principles and how to apply them to your digital publications.

Use consistent visuals

A top rule for ensuring great user experience is committing to one, coherent graphic design. Whichever fonts, colors and layouts you have chosen for your documents, they should match the visual identity of your business. Otherwise, too many different graphic elements risk overwhelming your online audience and can negatively impact UX.

So how do you create a seamless visual transition between your brand and your digital publications? To start, you can customize the appearance of the viewer. For example:

  • Choose a background for the viewer to harmonize with your website.
  • Upload your own image to reflect your branding.
  • Build a custom theme and fine-tune the viewer right down to the font.

Reduce friction

For UX designers, “friction” is anything that gets between users and their goals. For digital publishers, this often means not ensuring optimal readability for their online documents. When publishing on Calaméo, take a moment to select the best options for your publication in its properties. Easy ways to reduce friction include:

Rely on established UX elements

Thanks to decades of digital culture, certain features of user experience are already understood and expected by just about everybody. For instance, Internet users expect that clicking a logo in the top left-hand corner of a web page or window will return them to the home page.

user custom logo publication example

The publication above from County of Brant shows a great example of this strong UX element. With Calaméo, it’s simple to place your logo directly in the viewer and add a link. Take advantage of it in your digital publications to increase traffic to your site!

Encourage action

Do you wish you could:

  • Let your readers follow your business’s social media accounts in just one click?
  • Modify a button in the viewer to include a call to action, such as “Download now”?
  • Create a smart contact button in the viewer to help generate leads?

Then you need to explore Calaméo’s custom themes feature. Because of its unique flexibility, you can adapt the user experience of your digital publications to best serve your business’s goals. Check out this example from Office de Tourisme de Bordeaux Métropole:

user custom theme publication example

We’ve put together an illustrated tutorial to show you how to get started customizing your theme. But to discover the full range of possibilities, take a look around our Developer resources.

From one-click options to made-to-measure themes, Calaméo gives you powerful tools to create the best possible user experience for your digital publications.

Our PLATINUM plan includes all the must-have features to boost your digital publications’ UX. Request your free, two-week demo and try them out today!

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MARKETING

Why digital publishing is the future of communications for municipalities

In MARKETING
17 October 2024

Communication is a crucial issue for municipalities. As local players, they must inform citizens, publish administrative documents and promote their initiatives. However, in the face of increasing digitalization, traditional means of communication are no longer sufficient to meet the expectations of citizens, who demand accessible, up-to-date and interactive information. Against this backdrop, digital publishing is emerging as an innovative solution, enabling municipalities to modernize their communications.

Thanks to tools like Calaméo, local authorities can disseminate their content more effectively while reducing costs. In this article, we explore how municipalities can use digital publishing to improve their communication practices.

Today’s communication challenges for municipalities

Municipalities face a number of communication challenges:

Multiple communication channels

Today’s citizens use a multitude of channels to obtain information: social networks, websites, newsletters, mobile applications and more. For municipalities, this means having to manage multiple platforms while maintaining a consistent message.

Accessibility and transparency

Access to public information is a legal requirement, but also a growing expectation on the part of citizens. It is becoming increasingly necessary to guarantee total transparency and easy access to official documents. However, managing paper documents or using disparate digital channels makes this task complex and inefficient.

Key benefits of digital publishing

Digital publishing offers a number of advantages for municipalities.

Instant and wide distribution

With tools like Calaméo, municipalities can distribute their documents and publications instantly to a wide audience. Newsletters, minutes of meetings and by-laws can be consulted immediately after they have been put online, accessible to all at any time.

Optimizing costs and resources (paperless)

Switching to digital publishing enables municipalities to significantly reduce their printing and distribution costs. By eliminating paper documents, municipalities can save resources while adopting an eco-responsible approach.

READ MORE: Publishing goes green: Five easy ways to reduce your impact

Greater accessibility for citizens

Digital publications can be viewed on any device: computer, tablet or smartphone. This enables citizens to consult local information at any time, wherever they are, thus improving access to public information.

Examples of use for municipalities

Digital publishing offers a wide range of applications for local authorities. Here are a few examples:

Interactive municipal newsletters

Municipal newsletters can be enriched with videos, links and interactive images, offering a more engaging reading experience for citizens.

READ MORE: Discover our EDITOR tool

Regulatory publications (by-laws, local urban plans)

Municipalities can publish regulatory documents such as by-laws or local urban plans online, enabling citizens to access them easily without having to travel.

Practical guides and tourist brochures

Practical guides, tourist brochures and information on municipal services can also be published online, making it easier to disseminate important information to residents and visitors alike.

Why should you use Calaméo?

Calaméo offers municipalities a complete solution for putting their documents online, optimizing them and distributing them efficiently.

Enriched, engaging publications

Calaméo is an intuitive platform for converting documents into interactive publications. Municipalities can create publications enriched with links, videos and much more – and distribute them online.

Powerful analysis tools

Our platform also offers analysis tools to track the performance of publications and understand how citizens interact with them. Thanks to these detailed analyses, municipalities can track in real time the number of views, the time spent on each page and the actions taken by readers (such as clicks on links or videos).

READ MORE: Analytics made easy: Track your publications on Calaméo

Optimizing your visibility with SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential if your publications are to be easily found on search engines such as Google. With Calaméo, municipalities can optimize their account and publication descriptions, as well as use strategic keywords in the titles and texts of their publications.

Simplified multi-channel distribution

Another of Calaméo’s great strengths is its ability to easily distribute your publications via multiple channels. Municipalities can integrate their interactive documents directly onto their website, but also share them on their social networks such as Facebook, Twitter (X) or LinkedIn.

All these features give municipalities greater flexibility and efficiency in their communications with citizens, while optimizing the management and distribution of their publications.

Conclusion

Digital publishing represents a real opportunity for municipalities to modernize their communications and better meet citizens’ expectations. By opting for solutions like Calaméo, municipalities can distribute their documents more widely, reduce costs and make public information more accessible. Thanks to this approach, they can reinforce their transparency and efficiency, while adapting to new digital communication practices.

Request your free 14-day trial of Calaméo PLATINUM and test all our professional tools!

MARKETING

Print vs digital in your content strategy

In MARKETING
17 June 2021

In any communications plan, there’s room for both print and digital channels. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to tell which one is right for every project. Wondering what to choose for your content? Take a look at our quick breakdown of the main advantages and weaknesses for print vs digital formats.

Speed

Sometimes, you need things done fast. Whether you’re whipping up a quick flyer or racing the clock on a complex publication, time is a key factor. However, printing your content requires hours at best and even up to several weeks. And that’s without counting how long it can take to distribute printed materials by post or by hand! Compare those hours and weeks with under a minute to upload your file to a digital publishing platform like Calaméo. The result is a clear advantage for digital.

WINNER: DIGITAL

Cost

Like speed, the cost of different formats varies depending on which materials are needed. For print content, the cost of paper and ink adds up quickly. On the other hand, many digital channels are free or low cost. For example, you can create and share unlimited digital publications on Calaméo for absolutely no charge.

WINNER: DIGITAL

Prestige

When it comes to signaling that your content is important, choosing print vs digital has a big impact. Because of the higher costs and time required, printed materials represent a greater investment than digital communciations. Plus, elements like high-quality paper, embossing and binding reflect the value of your message in a way that is hard to translate to online channels. Today, print takes the edge in prestige.

WINNER: PRINT

Experience

The toughest match-up on this list. Print and digital content provide very distinct experiences. Online formats are dynamic, interactive and shareable; printed formats are tactile, immersive and collectible. Given the amazing range of digital experiences and print innovations, we have to say that both channels are champions here.

WINNER: TIE

Stats

Before the Internet age, it was difficult to measure how many people saw or engaged with communications. Newspapers and magazines described their reach in terms of circulation, while businesses kept track of how many messages they sent. Thanks to online media formats, detailed statistics help you understand how audiences view and interact with your content. A major digital benefit!

WINNER: DIGITAL

Lifetime

Let’s go to the numbers on this one:

In general, print communications have a much longer lifetime than digital content. Of course, some printed material only lasts a day, while some tweets have been archived to live forever. But the ability to update and delete digital publications makes them less durable than print.

WINNER: PRINT

Sustainability

Finally, consider the sustainability of print vs digital content. Although you might think that online is obviously the greener choice, remember that even sending a single email has an environmental impact. So to get serious about eco-friendly communciations, it’s useful to review the entire process from creation to distribution. In most cases, digital will offer more sustainability overall. 

WINNER: DIGITAL

And the winner is…

Digital!

As our head-to-head shows, digital options have a lot of advantages for your content strategy. However, the real takeaway is that print and digital can complement each other perfectly in a balanced communications plan.