Designing a Digital-First Annual Report
for the Monell Center

In a year that saw nearly every organization shift from physical spaces to virtual spaces, the Monell Center, a globally recognized leader in scientific research on smell and taste, wanted to transition their annual report from a printed report to a digital experience that readers could access on any device.

Monell asked Alley to design the report as an online experience for users to scroll through rather than turn pages. What they needed was a digital transformation of a key component to their annual communications and development efforts.

The Monell report - a white headline on an orange field with a large blue M - displayed on a laptop screen

“Overall everyone on the Alley team was terrific to work with — responsible, helpful, and knowledgeable. I felt we were in really really good hands with Alley.”

Karen Kreeger, Director of Communications, Monell Chemical Senses Center
The Monell report - a white headline on an orange field with a large blue M - displayed on a smartphone screen

Responsive Design

The annual report was distributed via email, so it was designed to display well on any device.

The desktop and mobile views of the "Our Research Aims" section of the report, with a brief paragraph explanation and four different colored circles with white line icons of each of the research goals

Infographics

Custom infographics designed by Alley are used throughout the site to illustrate key points.

Various statistics from the report displayed in orange text on dark blue hexagons, and a pie chart

A New Table of Contents

We transformed the table of contents into a navigation menu that linked to major section headers within the page.

A visual table of contents showing previews of each of the sections that the table would link to

Telling Stories

Built on WordPress, the page supports many forms of embedded media, like video, to tell a richer story.

A video page from the Monell site displayed on a tablet screen

Calls to Action

Calls to action are now directly actionable in a digital annual report, in a way that wasn’t possible in print.

A close up of the Monell footer in dark blue, with a bright orange button to Download Report and a bright yellow button to Donate Now

  • Development

The online edition of the New York Post faced multiple challenges in today’s demanding digital news environment. Alley relaunched the site and led one of the largest content migrations in the history of WordPress.

Century of Science

  • Design
  • Development
  • Editorial Strategy
  • User Experience

For 100 years, Science News readers have had a front row seat to the most vital scientific stories of our modern world. To celebrate their centennial, Science News turned to Alley to design and develop Century of Science, an online experience that connects new audiences with the scientific milestones and themes that fascinated and astounded readers throughout the 20th century.

  • Data Visualization and Research Communications
  • Design
  • Development
  • Discovery
  • User Experience

Relying on user research from multiple audiences, Alley built a new home for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science and Engineering State Indicators. The new site allows policymakers and researchers to more easily access the data they need in the form that they want, whether that is making visual comparisons of neighboring states or downloading CSV files.