Alex Downey-Ging – President – Xplor Ryerson

There are plenty of forums, websites, and books dedicated to adapting websites, newsletters, and images for multi-platform use. Mobile design is being implemented in our daily lives, making it easier to access information on the go. However, this transition makes it that much more obvious of those companies who have not yet adapted.

PDFs, specifically PDFs for receipts and transaction documents, have not kept up with the mobile needs of consumers. It is now widely expected that a website will reflow content and adjust the layout to meet the needs of the screen it is being viewed on. However, there is surprisingly little content on redesigning PDFs to be viewed on mobile devices.

The layout used for PDF documents needs to be updated. The optimum design would make a transactional document easy to read on a desktop monitor, when printed on an 8.5 x 11 document, and when displayed on a mobile device.

Here are some screenshots of the problem from a phone.

Looking at the current layout, there is a lot of white space, and everything is too small to read.

Here is how these documents display on a mobile device when zoomed in. Not all the information is visible.

Right now, of the companies that email me receipts and bills, I find there are three ways billing information is being sent online.

• Email with Receipt in Body of Text: Some send the receipt in the body of the email. Email can be formatted with images and layout, and some are responsive (fitting different screen sizes), others are not. Email receipts designed with a fixed width larger than the typical phone screen don’t look right (the same problem with PDFs).
• Email with a Link to Login: The second is something I get for my cell phone bill; an email with the amount owed, but a link that requires a login to view the bill on a website. These display well on mobile and desktop, but require the user to actually remember their login credentials.
• Email with a PDF Attachment: Many people view their emails on their phones or tablets, and if the user has to pinch to zoom for basic information the document has been designed incorrectly. I do not believe it is the PDF that is an issue, but the layout and document setup that is causing the problem.

The entire reason companies are sending these receipts to the customer is because the customer needs to read it. Requiring a user to fiddle with their settings, or flag it to view later on a desktop, is not meeting the needs of the consumer.

Is the PDF still worth using? I think so. It is a file format that can be opened on a great number of devices, does not require an internet connection to read, and can be archived and sent quite easily. However, it’s time for a redesign.

That’s why Xplor Ryerson is holding a competition. Attendees are invited to redesign a PDF receipt, and all are invited to join us on April 6 at 6 pm to view the entries and vote on the winners. You can RSVP and learn more about the competition by clicking this link

So what needs to change? The font size, the location of the information, the actual page size of each document? Join us April 6 to see the submissions and find out.