Early on in my design career I worked as part of a team of in-house designers at a corporate office. During that time I was frequently willing to use the infamous "lorem ipsum" text as a placeholder in my designs. (Maybe it was just me so I won’t speak for the rest of the team!)
Using the placeholder text seemed like a good idea. A project could move forward on my end while the writer wrote on his/her end. Our team was shown other websites as examples. We would come up with a design layout with short and sweet placeholder paragraphs, good imagery and great calls to action. The plan was that we could then just drop in the text and voila; a shiny finished design comp! Invariably, the text that came back simply did not fit. Usually the text was too long or had gone in a different direction than the original idea.
Let’s be fair (and honest). This "unruly text" was not entirely the fault of the writer. The job of a writer is to write. Not everyone is visual and can imagine what text will look like in a given amount of space in a design; especially if they have not seen the result as yet. What I needed to do was to ask better questions, give more specific guidance to the writer and be more involved along the way. I now work for myself and have learned that lesson,
The second step in my web design process is gathering the content. Whether it is a copywriter or the client who does the writing, no formal design mock-up will happen until that content is written. I do think a loose mock-up, like a pencil sketch, can be helpful. Some writers may prefer the sketch as it provides a better idea of the kind and size of space for which they will be writing. This conversation allows both the designer and writer to be involved and be on the same page about the direction of the project.
Design and content are a partnership.
Design and content work together to elevate a project to a level neither can do alone. To move a project forward it is impossible to have a discussion about content without having a discussion about design; but I do think content needs to lead the way.
Content builds the foundation.
Your content should be able to stand on its own. It may not seem as exciting on its own but isn’t that why your customers visit your website and the reason your customers connect with you on social media? Customers stick around because of the content you create and the problems the content solves for them. It pains me to say this but people do not surf the web for beautifully designed websites. People will stick around an ugly website if it solves their problems and answers their questions. Think about something as simple as a business card. If you have no business name, no phone or address, what are you going to make a business card out of? There is no content so there is nothing to design or communicate.
Content also determines how the final product will be constructed. A website is a perfect example for this because from page to page the styling can be different and is tied to the content of the page. A blog post, for example, will be styled differently than the services page. Not only is the content different but the goals of the pages are different.
Why? Because…
Design supports content.
Design is about communication and problem-solving. In the world of written content, design takes your content, organizes it and enhances it by emphasizing important points, creating graphics to support and augment meaning and turning a long running string of words into something enjoyable to read.
Let’s go back to the business card example. For the most part business cards are simple, using alignment and font size to create levels of importance usually paired with a logo. Going through any online printing template gallery will show you that.
We all get a lot of business cards so one of the problems design can solve in this instance is: How do I make my card stand out from everyone else’s? Do a search for business card inspiration and it will turn up some really brilliant designs that took that challenge and ran with it. These final designs are more than just about the name and the contact information. Â These designs are communicating something deeper about the person and the business, whether it is using an image directly related to the business or showing off a sense of humor.
BUT those designs could not have happened without the content.
On a practical level, it saves time and money.
In life and business we always want more of these two things; time and money. You can’t make more time, and, while you can make more money, that doesn’t mean you want to waste it. Having conversations about content and design before finalizing either saves you, both, time and money. If the content comes second it will either a) cause the writer unnecessary pain trying to shove copy into a pre-conceived space or b) time must be spent rewriting copy or c) the design has to be reworked to fit around the copy.
It may seem like its taking more time to discuss content up front but it’s a good use of time. Trust me. Time spent planning and plotting at the beginning part of any project is time not spent in frustration reworking design comps, reworking copy to fit into an already designed comp and suppressing bad feelings that cause people to not want to work together again. I’d rather be high-fiving a job well done and going to a celebratory lunch.