Great content can be made even better with great design, but the path to the perfect visual content is often times rough. In this week’s #ContentChat we were joined by Jeff Baker (@Baker_Rithms), director of marketing for Brafton, to discuss the intersection of design and content, and ways your team can ensure a harmonious relationship between the two.
Q1: Which comes first, the design concept or the content draft?
A baked design with filler text can easily lead you into trouble, but general guiding principles or themes are encouraged.
A1: I think it depends on what you mean by “concept”, meaning, if you create a mockup with filler text, not really knowing how long the content will be or what will be in it, you’re asking for trouble. Lots of it. #ContentChat
— Jeff Baker (@baker_rithms) November 5, 2018
A1: However, if we are talking about design “look and feel” concepts, the general layout, colors you will use, fonts, menus, footers, etc., then that’s fine. #ContentChat
— Jeff Baker (@baker_rithms) November 5, 2018
A1: It’s just when you have constrained your content to a to a container (your design) that you are going to run into a Frankenstein-looking page. #ContentChat
— Jeff Baker (@baker_rithms) November 5, 2018
a1 Wow – that’s a loaded starting question! Depends – if you’re working with a theme – you’re writing within the boundaries of the design. If you’re creating from scratch – content first, IMO. #contentchat
— Debi Norton (@BRAVOMedia1) November 5, 2018
Your team needs to first assess what will work best for your audience, using hard evidence or industry research where possible to guide you.
A1: It depends on the business and the audience. Design can totally inform the content you have and vice versa. If your audiences are visual, they’ll probably want a more interactive design, and if they are text oriented, they might want a more minimal design. (1/2) #ContentChat
— Patrick Delehanty (@MDigitalPatrick) November 5, 2018
A1: It really comes down to usability test, surveying your audience, and thorough industry research to understand what could come first. It really can go either way. (2/2) #ContentChat
— Patrick Delehanty (@MDigitalPatrick) November 5, 2018
Content is the safe place to start, because you should not sacrifice the quality of your content to fit design constraints.
A1: The content or narrative is typically the foundation for the design team. based on the story you want to tell, design can really bring it to life in amazing ways. But you need the words to be the foundation #contentchat
— Mike Goldberg (@HeavyMetalMG) November 5, 2018
A1. It varies based on the situation.
On the conversation I was having just on Saturday, I feel it tends to favor content. Understand what do you want to convey. From there, the design the experience to meet the needs. #ContentChat— J. (yes just the letter) Nolfo-Content Manager 🦏 (@jnolfo) November 5, 2018
A1b: When I’m working as a consultant, I’m often working with a freelance designer after the content is written and approved. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Strategy (@SFerika) November 5, 2018
You can remove any guesswork by bringing your design and content teams in for a meeting to discuss the project, the goal, and initial ideas. This way your design and content can evolve with each other in mind, as opposed to being created in silos.
A1a: When I am in-house, I like to start any design-centric project with a joint meeting with the content team and the designer(s). I find we come up with much more engaging, thoughtful content that way. #ContentChat https://t.co/j5zUHqQ2nk
— Erika Heald | Content Strategy (@SFerika) November 5, 2018
A1: I always start off with what I’m looking to achieve and the goals – as a former designer, I always let the design content help form the content draft and many times they went hand in hand where I knew what the content would be and how the design would fit #ContentChat
— Bernie Fussenegger 🐝✌️the7️⃣ (@B2the7) November 5, 2018
When you really get into trouble is when one person doesn’t communicate with the other, and they are forced into the box you shove them in. Kind of kills creativity, you know? #ContentChat
— Jeff Baker (@baker_rithms) November 5, 2018
In-house collaboration, where everyone is on the same page is such a beautiful thing to see 😍😍 #contentchat
— Brafton (@Brafton) November 5, 2018
And we all hate that awkward moment when your content team and design team are waiting for the other to make the first move.
A1. I hate those awkward moments when…
the designer wants the copy before beginning, and
the writer wants to know how much space they have to work with before starting. #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) November 5, 2018
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