What is content-first web design?
Content-first web design is a type of website design approach that has been around for over a decade. The main purpose of this approach is to provide the best possible content. To do this, you need to have a clear understanding of the content in which you are working.
Examples include designing a product box for an online store. In many cases designing a template for a shop, but can this template be appropriate for your products as well?
An online store selling mineral water is completely different from an electronics store or a website that sells fruit online.
In traditional systems, we only focus on the standards of a store website design. However, in content-based design, we first conduct a detailed analysis of the nature of the product, the type of content provided, and the needs of the audience, and then the website is designed accordingly.
From our previous example, in a store selling mineral water, it can be said that the product’s final page and the presentation of various textual descriptions and illustrations can affect the way the user can better understand the product and turn them into a potential customer.
It is interesting to note that the Content First Design method is not limited to website design as it is also used in packaging design, catalogues and many print products &… For example, for the cover design of a book, we must be aware of the content contained in it and by its title or category, a beautiful and relevant appearance can then be made.
The fragrance companies pay attention to the use and smell of the fragrance when designing the glass and choosing its colour, which gives you a relative estimate of the smell when you look at the fragrance glass. In the design of physical products, its content and nature are also taken into consideration.
When does content-first design matter?
All websites can use content-based design, and this method is not limited to an online store or corporate website. The main purpose of this approach is to give the designer a proper understanding of the content presented to the user and the degree of importance of each part of the website.
For example, if it is clear before the design starts, that the article titles are generally long, then the designer will allow more space for the display, but no matter what the content is presented, there may be problems displaying after the website is launched. All pictures in an electronic magazine may be a wide-format, but the designer will consider the square for most picture frames, so what will happen after you launch the website?
By carefully examining the content before designing, we will determine what page layout and content layout should be prioritized, how much space and size are appropriate for images and titles, and what information should be displayed on each page of the website. Of course, once the plan is implemented, it may need to be modified, but we assure you that it will be far greater regardless of the content.
One of the most important steps before starting a website design project is holding face-to-face meetings with your designer and trying to understand the content and products offered on the website. At this meeting, the business owner’s point of view is the starting point for the analysis, but it can’t be enough. An Internet search, competitor analysis, and creativity are the factors that will influence the final design.
Content should be one step ahead of design. If the design priority is not content-based, the final design will just need to get changed again when we start implementing the content into the website.
4 important reasons to pay attention to content before designing a website
Perhaps the most important reason for focusing on content is to improve the user experience and SEO, but here are much more important benefits from using this approach:
1. Determine the content strategy and website structure
According to statistics, easy access to different parts of the website is the most important thing to consider when designing a website. This proves that on content-based websites, quick and easy access to content is important to the user.
When you prioritize content and know what content is going to be on the website, you will have a more reasonable structure in website design. Optimizing the structure of the design has a great impact on how the content is presented to the audience and avoids unnecessary clutter and irregularities in the website structure.
For example, if you know the categories and sub-categories of a website store before you start designing, you will have a better understanding of the website’s main menu and its structure. The use of a simple menu or a mega menu depends directly on the number of categories and sub-categories of the product. If the website designer does not know this, the final design will probably not work.
2. Design of custom elements
Some websites use different elements such as tables or quotes to provide content. If you know what methods of delivering content are most used by your website authors, you can focus on making the website more beautiful and practical according to their needs.
On many websites we find that the design is done using public icons and elements, but if you know the product type and the degree of importance of the categories you can design your own image or icon for each individual user experience. To increase the reputation.
3. Prioritize content
Knowing what the target audience of your website’s content is going to be can greatly impact the usability of your website design.
Many online stores by default devote much of the page and box product space to the image, while in many specialized areas of product image the user is not the top priority. Under these circumstances, it will be difficult first to produce the right images for each product and secondly, the more important content that may be the price or the product specifications will have less room for display.
4. Accelerate the design and approval process
Many of the changes in website design are due to ignorance of website content strategy. If you are aware of the overall content of the website in question, you will be protected from any subsequent changes. If you start designing regardless of the content and the importance of the different parts of it, then the customer will probably be dissatisfied with it and ask for a redo. In some cases, the difference between the original layout and the website content is that you will have to redesign.
Website design in terms of content actually adds a serious step to the job, where the website designer and business owner need to hold numerous meetings and get a detailed understanding of the nature of the website. This step may increase the cost of designing the website for you, but we assure you that it will cost you more in the future if you do not take it seriously.
You may have noticed a lot of content-based design on your website, but we recommend that you take a closer look at how content is displayed and how important it is to different parts of the website. Are the most important content sections of the page easily accessible to the user? How does the essential information, such as price, inventory, and purchase button, reflect the nature of your business?
