The Correlation Between Content And Website Design

One of the key philosophical approaches to the design process is content-first. It asserts that to create the best design for any given project, you must first determine what the content is.

In a nutshell, content-first design is knowing what your design's objective is and how it will accomplish that goal before you begin developing.

Doesn't that make sense? After all, an editorial designer doesn't start putting out a book until it's finished. An architect doesn't start sketching designs until he or she understands what the structure will be used for. The form must follow functions in both of these professions, and most websites achieve a function through content.

Users, their needs, and the desired results of a website visit should all be considered when designing the website. It should concentrate on the user's needs and the website's potential to solve them.

People force their material to fit within the template's available content blocks once they purchase the stock theme. Worse, they may require a custom design to follow the same style and appearance of a prominent competitor's website.

Content-first design has several advantages

Using a content-first approach has various advantages, including improving overall design vision and uncovering design flaws before they become problems.

Content-first design makes it easier to:

Create a logical information architecture: It's easy to define your general sitemap and layout a logical hierarchy if you know what material you have and/or require.

Design to optimize the content: If you know your client's bloggers frequently utilize quotations, you can create elegant ways to highlight blockquotes and callouts. If they like listicles, a card or gallery-style design might be preferable to a long list of numbered headings.

There's also the potential that you're focusing solely on the style of your new website and missing something as important: the content.

Without content, a well-designed website is nothing. Similarly, even the best content on a website is worthless if it isn't presented properly. These two elements combine to create effective websites with strong user engagement, conversion rates, and search engine rankings.

Ultimately, the consumer benefits from the content-first strategy. You're creating information that consumers want and connecting it in a way that makes it easier for them to find, browse, and share it.

Content Comes First, Which Leads to Smart Design Decisions

Once you've accomplished the graphic design, you may document your ideal user flow, visitor paths, and call to action. Unfortunately, this is the wrong strategy since it requires you to match your content to the theme or appearance of the website. On the contrary, it should be.

As an expert website development company, you should keep track of your user personas, their unique obstacles, your solution offering, and the paths you want these visitors to travel on your website.

Focus on the Right Content

Don't invest all of your energy into writing your content. For most website owners and businesses, this would be a difficult thing to achieve. Instead, emphasize the most important sections and pages of the website.

Here are some of the most typical places where a content-first strategy might help:

• Home
• Main about or company page
• Main services page and individual service pages
• Main storefront and individual product pages
• Resource sections, categories, and/or resource items
• Personas
• Landing page templates
• Main blog pages and individual blog posts
• Contact page

A Website design company with expertise knows the complexity of the material, as well as the differences in content flow and call to action, all influencing custom design templates.

As we work with a client on a project, we prefer to have as much information as possible about fundamental elements and how they might be changed depending on the website's various sections.

Content aspects that matter in a content strategy before website design:

• Headlines and subheaders
• Core messaging
• Paragraph text
• User personas and visitor paths
• Call to actions
• Images
• Videos
• Navigation
• Social media accounts
• Search engine optimization

The more knowledge and resources your graphic designer has, the more distinct and targeted your design will be.

Striking a Balance

Not all scenarios will allow for a content-first approach to website design. You must strike a balance and pick and choose your conflicts.

If this is going to be a challenging approach, I recommend starting with common aspects like navigation, SEO, and a call to action. Then, by examining user personas and their visitor paths, start narrowing down the focus.

The procedure may appear daunting at first, but like anything else in life, you must break it down into manageable bits and assess the lengthy list piece by piece.

Can We Assist You?

We'd be delighted to assist you with a website redesign or new site launch. We'll take a hybrid approach that combines user intent, website design, and SEO.

But be prepared for a barrage of inquiries. The more information we have about you and your visitors, the better we will be able to assist you in achieving your marketing aims and goals.