For a time, the content versus design argument had a chicken and egg feel. Many argued you couldn’t write until a website was fully designed. After all, how could you know what to write if there was nothing to guide you? But content experts would combat that position with the stance that good content would dictate a site’s design, providing a more seamless, intuitive user experience. A designer can better align the visual aspects of a site after they know what the words will say. And on and on the argument went.
Eventually, designers began to realize the latter idea made sense. Users typically don’t visit sites to look at nice pictures — they’re clicking the link because they want information. And that information is, more often than not, in the form of words.
Here’s why a content-first design strategy is best:
- Information — Visitors go to most websites to learn something or buy something. Words convey that information. The majority of designers have figured out it’s easier to create something around words than vice versa.
- Satisfy the User — You can design the coolest site ever, but it’s not going to matter if the user can’t find what she wants. Thinking from the buyer’s perspective helps dictate priorities.
- Efficiency — The largest website design bottleneck is content. Companies can never find the personnel or time to deliver it, or they make it a secondary priority. Placing content at the front of the process — and hiring a firm to write it — ensures it gets done faster.
- Communicating Quality — Good content best represents your company and its expertise. If you place content as a secondary concern, and not give it the focus it requires, you risk positioning your organization and its brand in a negative light.
Have you hired a firm in the past to develop a new website for your company? What strategy did they use? How did that decision impact overall timeline?
To learn how we can help you best develop your content-first strategy, click here.