Design Hackathon: Content trouble 9/10
Guest Contribution
Imagine cooking a tasty meal without knowing the ingredients and what it will taste like. You might be able to put something that looks pretty on the plate, but will it taste good? Will the mix of ingredients make sense? The same scenario occurs when a designer is asked to design a page using only Lorem Ipsum, not knowing the actual content.
Example 1
I worked for a client who was doing a revamp of their site. When I asked for content he said: “Just use the old one. We are working on the new one.” I had no other option but to work with the old content. Designs got approved, website got developed and content input was up next. Unfortunately, the new content had a completely new structure, text length and information hierarchy, it broke the design and the website was unusable. We had two options, rewrite the text to the new design or redesign based on the new text. Neither of the options were desirable.
Example 2
I’m going to contradict myself now and show you a scenario that would end up much better if I would have used Lorem Ipsum. I was preparing to present designs to a massive committee of over 20 people. There were people from various departments of the government organisation and they were all very eager to see the new website. They patiently waited for me to present the designs and when I asked them for their thoughts they started to argue amongst themselves about the content, that some of it was not right and new one should be written. The objective was to get design feedback, not debate about content, but it was impossible for them to focus only on design even after multiple reminders.
Content trouble takeaway:
- At the very least, get headers. If you cannot get your hands on the content, try asking for the headers / content groups and their hierarchy. Determine what will be the most important information on the page and then a descending list of the rest of them. Extremely useful when designing.
- If you have the text, READ IT! A designer to text is like a musician to a score. Everyone puts a bit of their own into it, but you must know what you are playing with.
- Chose a typeface that will honor the content. Take note, writing any kind of warning sign in Comics Sans should be punishable.
- Use Lorem Ipsum if you want people you present to to focus on design only.
- Talk to the content producers, if you have the option. They will appreciate you approaching them. Ask them for their opinions and vision for the content and see how you can make it work together.
I know there are plenty of articles about ‘content first’, this shouldn’t be another one of those. I think there is a time and place for such a strategy. The reality is that content development is a lengthy process and most times, it stretches all the way to the website development, long past the design stage. If you have the luxury of having content, use it to its full potential.
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