WEBSITE PLANNING

Choose HTML or PDF for Customer Information

Choose a useful format for customer information and prevent downloadable documents from becoming outdated.

Choose around the customer task

A printable specification sheet and a quick service explanation have different needs. List how customers use the information: read on a phone, search for a phrase, print it, share it or complete an action. If the main task is to understand a service and contact the business, an ordinary web page can keep the information near navigation and contact controls.

Create a content inventory

For each proposed document record its owner, update frequency, intended audience and whether an equivalent page exists. A hypothetical maintenance checklist might remain downloadable for printing while its instructions are also available in HTML. Decide which version owns the facts. Without that decision, the PDF can advertise an obsolete price after the website is updated.

Compare the actual experience

Open the document on a phone and try locating the relevant answer. Check that text is selectable and the reading order is sensible, rather than assuming a visually attractive exported file is usable. Review document accessibility separately. If both formats remain, use descriptive links stating what downloads and keep their content synchronized. The decision should reduce customer effort, not simply increase the number of indexable URLs.

Reference and next step

Reference: W3C information structure guidance. For help reviewing a specific implementation, send the affected website address and describe the task customers are trying to finish.