Coined by Bill Gates in 1996, the adage "Content is king" continues to hold weight nearly three decades later. Gates believed that in digital marketing, high-quality content is the most important factor for success.
In the context of website development, this philosophy prioritises the content of your website as the driving force behind its design. To ensure a website's success, having the right content aligned with your goals is imperative. By adopting a content-first mindset, you guarantee ample time to understand what you want to convey and how best to articulate it. Otherwise, you risk forcing content into a website that is ill-prepared to accommodate it, ultimately resulting in a message lost on your users.
Content: The Cornerstone of User-Centric Design
A content-first approach recognises content (messaging, copy, images, video, downloadable materials, etc.) as the primary component of a website. While function and form also hold importance, content ultimately draws users to a website. Thus, establishing content as the cornerstone in the planning, design, and development of a user-centric website is crucial.
The Problems with a Design-first Approach
Humans are visually inclined beings. Seeing aids comprehension more than conceptualising or imagining. Although envisioning your website's potential appearance before drafting content offers a satisfying visual, it places the metaphorical cart before the horse.
Designing a website without firm content in place is a misstep that can derail strategy, wasting time and resources.
"Designing before having content is akin to creating packaging without knowing what to put in it. If the content doesn't fit, there are only two options: starting over or squeezing it into the existing packaging."
— Rian van der Merwe
Instead of shoehorning content into a visually appealing design, the design should revolve around the actual content, highlighting key information in a user-friendly manner.
A design-first approach also risks compromising user experience. Content should be easily accessible and engaging; cramming content into a design often sacrifices crucial UX principles to maintain coherence.
The Importance of Content Strategy
A robust content strategy outlining how to meet audience needs and achieve marketing goals is pivotal for your website. Content acts as the magnet, attracting users, and a content strategy directs the creation of content, specifying the target audience, topics, and site architecture. It also establishes content hierarchy, prioritising information on each webpage. Before commencing any design or development, a content strategy should be in place for your website redesign project.
Organising Website Content
As with any task, planning and preparation are crucial, guiding the site-building process. Once the content strategy is established, brainstorming, prioritising, refining, and mapping out content according to user goals become essential. Information Architecture (IA) organises, structures, and labels website content and navigation intuitively. A sitemap, a vital IA tool, provides a blueprint, delineating primary, secondary, and tertiary pages, as well as content types and their order. Sitemaps facilitate visualising content hierarchy and making adjustments. With a well-defined outline, content development or editing becomes more manageable within the new hierarchy.
Content and Design Synergy
Traditionally, clients would view page designs before content generation, making diving into content development daunting without visual motivation. For the content-first approach to succeed, clients must prioritise content early in the website redesign process and rely on their agency partners for guidance. Remember, a website can thrive sans elaborate design as long as its content offers value and assistance to users (e.g. Wikipedia and Craigslist). However, powerful websites strike a balance between quality content, intuitive navigation, and captivating design.
Designing around Content
A website's design aims to present content meaningfully, convey the brand, and create an engaging visual atmosphere. Designers previously had to devise ways to display content that didn't exist yet or might change drastically. Modern web design necessitates form following function and design complementing content, not vice versa.
Content Takes Precedence
While beginning with design and deferring content creation might seem appealing, content should always take precedence. It starts with developing a content strategy and delivering client-centric, compelling content that addresses audience queries at each stage of their journey.
At Hypermagix Studios, we have always championed a content-first approach to website design.
While design and development are essential for website success, a content-first approach not only better serves audience needs but also results in a more positive user experience, impacting usability, navigation, engagement, and ultimately, conversion.
