Based in, and owned by the State of Berlin, Gewobag is a real estate company. They develop, manage, and rent residential properties. Their portfolio contains nearly 80,000 apartments.
Gewobag’s 2022 annual report is notable for the way it directs the reader’s attention. It does this in a number of ways. The report is a two-page microsite attached to the company’s main website. Each page is composed of blocks of text, captioned photographs, videos, and sides-scrolling blocks of image and text.
Designed by heureka GmbH, the report references the company logo—three overlapping hexagons—by using four-sided slices of a hexagon as a design element. These slices function as blocks of colour to brighten the layout and more importantly, as a way to direct attention. As the reader scrolls vertically towards a photograph or pull-quote in the main layout, a set of these coloured shapes slides into view, toward the photograph or pull-quote, tugging the eye to the destination desired by the company.
An even more effective technique is deployed in the use of side-scrolling blocks of text and image. Here, the design stops the reader scrolling vertically until they have looked at the contents of the side-scrolling block.
These two techniques ensure a low degree of autonomy in the way the reader engages with the contents of the report. In reading a novel, the reader controls how much they read in any one sitting and whether they skip ahead to the interesting parts. Conversely, at a cinema, the viewer must see the film at the speed the director chose, with no ability to pause or skip the film. Gewobag’s report functions a lot like this. In allowing the site to dictate the reader’s experiences, the company ensures its message is consumed to its satisfaction.
