Creating Content Before Design

Content Drives Layout and Design

“‘Content is King’ – you might have a pretty website which will catch someone’s eye, but if the content is no good, you can be willing to bet that they aren’t going to stick around.” — Selene M. Bowlby

After completing a content audit based on the needs and requirements of you and your users, you will write the content for your website knowing what you should keep, remove, add, revise or merge. It is important to know that your content should be written before you determine the look and feel of your website.

Content drives what the layout and design should be because you don't want to be forced to try and fit your content into a predetermined layout and design. If you realize something is hard to describe in words and works better as an image or infographic, you don't want to be stuck in a text-based layout; or if you find out you need something to be written out, you don't want to be stuck in a graphic-based layout.

Writing your content is probably the step that will take the longest because you will probably need to write all of the content and then re-examine that content to determine the best way to give that content to your users. Throughout the process, always refer to the content evaluation questions and the content creation process.