Headspace Design

When should content be worked into a web design?

Posted On March 3rd, 2010 Author Kyle Racki  Filed Under Design   2

If you are a web designer or work with web designers, you know that content is a real challenge when it comes to producing a quality website. Mainly because content is of critical importance, after all, that is why users are there in the first place. However, many web teams ignore content until the very end of a web project. Why?

In my experience with print design, I often had finished, client-approved copy before I was even briefed on the design. When it came time for layout, everything I was using for content was real, and I would get annoyed if any last minute copy changes came in after I spent hours kerning and massaging my lovely blocks of text.

With the web however, most of us have gotten used to the lack of finality with our designs. A website is never truly finished, unlike print, where the piece, sooner or later get’s printed—and then it’s done and I’m on to a new project. I think because of this inherent flexibility in the medium of the web, it has caused website owners to neglect copy, because they know it can always be done and added later, usually in a content management system.

In a perfect world, content should be available to a designer before he ever begins designing, just like the good old days of print. Would you agree?

But let’s get real

I have to say, while I generally would prefer this, I know that 99% of the time, it’s never going to happen. Time is money, and as long as I am waiting around for a client to write content, or even have a professional writer get copy written and approved by the client, I am wasting precious time that could be spent developing a look and feel for the website, or constructing the back-end.

Also, there are times where it actually doesn’t make sense to have all the copy written. Sure, things like calls-to-action, headlines and home page copy is great to have well in advance, but often it can be easier and more freeing to design content once it’s in place and on the page. Especially user-generated content cannot possibly be written in advance of the website design, so lorum ipsum will do just fine. And of course, in many other situations, content is not made up of words at all; It may be in the form of video or images, in which case, placeholders will have to make do.

Impossible to design without?

There have been strong comments made by very established web professionals who decry that good design can only be created with content already developed. That content is king and design is what the king is dressed in. And while I wholeheartedly agree, I also believe the being able to design a quality website can be done before every piece of copy is written. If you know the business (or non-business) goals of the website, who it’s target is, the site-map and information architecture already established, and you know what kind of copy will eventually be in place, then who is to say an effective solution can’t be designed?

Do you agree with me, or think I’m out to lunch? Let me know in the comments below.