Importance of content before design

Content is an important part of design, as a website design company our job is to communicate your information effectively. This article explains what is content, why it is important for your design and how it can affect your website if you don't have content prepared for your designer.

What Is Content?

Let's start with the basics and establish what exactly content is. When it comes to a website the content includes the text, images, videos and links that are placed on a page. Content is what gives a website a purpose, it helps potential customers understand your business and how they can use your services.

Why It's Important?

Content is the foundation of a website. The purpose of design is to communicate this content effectively. This means to create an effective design it is important to have the content carefully thought out at the beginning of the process, before any design elements are considered. Content can help a designer realise the purpose of a page and enable them to put an appropriate layout in place.

Finding out the level of content and how often it will need to be updated can impact the design of the pages and navigation structure of a website. People might visit your site because it looks nice, but they'll return because of the quality of the content and how easily they can find the information they need.

The Risks of No Content Before Design

Your content doesn't fit - One of the highest risks of having no content at the beginning of the build of your site is that when you come to add your content it may not fit; you will be trying to get a square peg into a round hole. Using placeholder text and images is a common solution for no content, but a risky one. They can be used to give the illusion of content, however without a sense of purpose, when it comes to adding the real content it is unlikely it will have the same fit.

Poor communication - If the design is not built around your prepared content, it might not be communicating your message effectively as you are forced to fit your content around the design.

Unwanted costs - You may have to go back to the designer to make alterations to accommodate your content when it is ready to be added. This extra work will come at a cost. Being prepared with content eliminates that risk.

Increased build time - Lack of content before the design can result in a more time-consuming process. If more time is taken on making sure content in your brief is correct, the designers will be aware of what you are trying to say and how best to communicate it. This will result in a quicker first draft and fewer amendments, saving much more time further into the process of getting your site Live.

The Benefits of Having Content Before Design

Professional looking site - Your designer will be able to tailor the site to your content, using the message within the text and visual elements to complement each other.

Effective communication - If the designer is able to see the purpose of your site and the message you are trying to convey, they are able to use the design of the website to effectively communicate this.

Easier to manage - If the designer is aware of the type of content you need on your site and how frequently it needs to be updated, this can be taken in to account when getting the design in place. They can make sure the correct page types and layouts are used to help you manage your content accordingly.

Quicker process - With the content being provided upfront, the designer will know what they are dealing with straight away and can come up with solutions on how to effectively present your content in the first draft. More often than not this will result in needing fewer amendments to the initial design, which gets you on your way to getting the site Live much quicker. That little bit of extra time spent at the beginning of the process will make the rest of it much easier.