What comes first: content or design?
A better design approach
Could a content-first designed website serve you better?
The answer is a resounding yes! Designing a website without content is like creating a book cover before writing the book.
To quote the web designer Jeffrey Zeldman, “Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design; it’s decoration.”
Content-first design, also known as Content Design, stresses the importance of content in defining a website’s design, layout and navigation. It ensures that users’ needs are met with clearly defined, quality content.
This concept requires close collaboration between writers, designers and developers to ensure a well-functioning website with highly effective content.
Content-first design relies on a clear content strategy that centers on the user and gives content the space it needs. It stresses the importance of writing in the design and development process.
With a content-design approach, you create and evaluate the information first to display it most effectively. In the end, your content dictates the design.
Steps to take in a Content Design approach
Gather each content element for your website to establish the correct flow. Then decide:
→ whether the information needs to be placed in a sidebar to stick out
→ whether the content should change when accessed on mobile
→ whether the content would be more effective as an infographic, video, list or a separate site element
→ whether a piece of content is crucial and requires its own page
→ whether the navigation truly reflects the content hierarchy
To summarize, Content Design:
- is not just a design technique but a way of thinking
- puts the audience first
- finds the best-suited content and adjusts the site’s structure
- seeks the most effective way for users to consume the content
- analyzes and prioritizes user research data and evidence
- respects users’ expectations, needs and goals
- is a form of digital ethnography
- ensures that design and information are in sync
- guarantees that each piece of content fulfills a purpose
- is part of the product creation process from the get-go
- is not a buzzword but an essential user-centered approach
Content Design ensures that the content works well within a design and that the design adapts to its content. Why is that important? Because designing and writing are more alike than you think. Both are about storytelling, forming ideas and giving ideas form. They are compatible languages and inquiries that reinforce each other.
One cannot function well without taking the other into account.
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Copyright © 2024 Tekla Szymanski | Content + Design™ LLC.
All Rights Reserved. Please share/quote with attribution.
AI tools are used ONLY for ideation and NOT for content creation.
