How to handle a bunch of downloads? (information architecture)

Question

In a current project I'm working on, is the following in the request list: In the Footer-Menu should be an link to a download center, where users can download materials about the company (brochures, forms, annual reports)

About the project: My job is to develop a concept for the website relaunch. The company I work for is a big national energy suppliers.

My question is, are download centers or areas up to date? Do somebody use this or looking somebody for things like this? I would place these downloads in the company presentation page and not in an central download center.

So, what I can do:

• No1 – put all downloads on a central page (download center)
• No2 – put all downloads on the company page or other relevant pages (without download center)
• No3 – put all downloads in the download center AND on the company page

What do you think? What is the best way to handle it?

Answer 1

A follow-up question is about the downloadable materials. Will it be standard corporate info, or do users come to your site often to download these materials and rely on updates for the information these materials contain. For example, a software company will have a central download page because software is something that updates and users expect this of the site. For many companies, this is considered a subsection of Press, Media, Corporate Info or similar pages, since the focus of the users is to find info about the company that's current right now, but is less focused on repeated and regular visits and downloading.

Answer 2

I believe the best way to create a central repository where you would upload the whole stuff which can be downloaded/viewed by the users. In addition to this you could have a simple link on your website termed as Resources which when clicked would take you to the central repository where user can choose what he wants. Unless it is a product that you are selling or a very prominent offering the resources link would be preferred to be placed in the footer else consider shifting it to the top.

Answer 3

My suggestion Is to place the download option in relevant pages.

For example - in white paper page there will be lot of article on some topics, place the download option there. Similarly it applies to Videos and other data types.

If the company wants to capture the user info then redirect the user to form page, after filling the form let download begin.