What’s Better: Content Before Design or Design Before Content?

What’s Better: Content Before Design or Design Before Content?

All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Web Design

Creating and designing a new website is an exciting project. Initially you’re thinking of all the possibilities and great ideas of what it will be. Content though, textual, isn’t always a fun thing to conceptualize. Is it a better practice to curate your content prior to designing your new website? Here are some points to argue both sides.

Explaining Your Product or Service is Verbally Easy

When we talk to new clients about their businesses, or why they decided to start a business, I notice them lean forward and eyes widen. This is because they’re enthusiastic about what they do and what they want to do in the world. Even if it’s a community based venture, the excitement of making products that make lives better, or a service that saves time and money is easy to talk about.

Now you’ll need to take those key talking points and make them sound good in sentences and slogans. Stringing together a story that flows correctly from left to right and not jumbled or out of order. In our discovery phase of our projects we like to take time to understand the vision of our client’s business ideas are. We need to understand it and grasp it for ourselves in order to create a website, photography, and business strategies that will not only compliment but also magnify these aspects. This can be daunting for most. Imagine stage fright, but for content on your website.

Solutions:

  • Hire a content or copywriter. They can take notes on your thoughts as you speak and translate the important key elements and combine engaging words that when it’s all put together makes a resonating impact on your readers and visitors.
  • Record your own conversations when you’re describing your trade. Then pick out the things you repeat often, or the things that you notice happen to resonate more with the people you’re talking to.
  • Create videos where you’re talking or describing your products and services. It’s no secret that videos are popular everywhere from SnapChat to YouTube and Facebook Live.

Web Site Pages to Navigation

Typically when creating a website you’re going to have a few common pages like; Home, About Us, Contact, and Services. (Side note, think about renaming those to something more creative. It will entice your visitors to click around more.) Now for the rest of your pages you’ll need to think about what makes sense and what order you’ll need to place them. For example, will it beneficial to have a small photo gallery on your home page? Maybe a three column display of products you have recent on sale under the main banner of your home page? Are you active in social media? And if so will it be best to showcase that in a predominant way?

You’ll also need to think about landing pages. Specific pages that talk about just one topic/product with an effective call to action and opt-in form. While these elements could be found on your home page, there are also many other things found on your home page that aren’t in total singularity. Hence why landing pages can be more effective at mainly selling a product or lead generation.

Page layouts are important to consider. You can go with the same set up for each page, but that’s not always something that works for every website. Some pages are worth being segmented into columns as a whole or various columns throughout the page.

Are sub-menus worth your visitors time and effort? For this you may need to do some split testing to understand what truly works, but it is valuable to consider when designing your pages.

Be creative and captivating with what is above the fold on each page of your website. This is the part of the page you see before scrolling down to see more content on the page you’re on. A lot of times what sits above the fold is crucial to the attention and staying power of your visitors. Pay attention to your bounce rate and see if what you’ve setup is working for you. Content also plays a big role in this too!

Solutions:

  • Consider creating a sitemap. You’re going to want to create one maybe on paper using a pencil to plan out how your pages and subpage structure will be. This flows right into navigation because depending on where your visitors come into your website, you’ll want to make sure they’re not lost as they get around but also easily identify how to get to the information they need and find what page it is on.
  • Check out your competitor websites and see what works for them as a user. Take notes on what you don’t like as well because that’s exactly where you’ll be able to improve on elements and layouts you felt are lacking.
  • A/B testing your layouts for various pages. Your visitors may stay on some pages more than others. See if there are similarities in the page layouts on the pages with more staying power over your other pages.

When Does It All Come Together?

For some of our clients it helps to see examples of page layouts before considering the content that will go on each page. And for others they have a general idea on structure but aren’t sure what pieces of content should go where and what is more important than others to be strategically displayed. We’re more of a proponent to knowing the base pages and names, then the content for each of those pages. Not all of the content usually fits or is necessarily going to work on the initial page(s). After the first round of designing, it becomes evident on what content is lacking and also what layouts are conducive for reading and navigation. We usually make those adjustments and sometimes add filler text or graphics to then bring back to our editors/copywriters to then create more elements to better balance each page.

This is our process and view on how we do things in short. What do you do differently? Let us know in the comments below!

image credit: Patrick Tomasso

Dealing With Setbacks

All Posts, Web Development

Frustrated WomanIf you’ve been in this industry for a while sooner or later you’ll come to a hiccup or worse a wall. Whether you’re a freelancer or the owner of a design firm or anywhere in between you’re not immune from the reality of circumstances and bad luck. Now some mishaps we actually can avoid, and that comes from seasoning and learning how to make good decisions early in time. There was a quote I got recently from a book I’ve been reading that really resonated with me.

“Easy short-term choices lead to difficult long-term consequences, while difficult short-term choices lead to easy long-term consequences.” The Paradox Principle.

I’m here to let you know of some good ways for you to deal with those setbacks. I’m also here to tell you that you’re not alone. We’re all out there at various times of the day or night pulling our hairs out or slamming desks when things don’t work right. Until there’s an 800 number for 24 hour sympathetic support, we have each other.

#1 Walk Away

This tip is probably the most important; walk away for a few hours. When you hit a wall in development, it may not be best for you to fight your frustrations head on. More times than none the more you look at it, the more things will make even less sense. You also run the risk of double thinking some other strings of code you knew were good before but go back and tweak that in hopes that it will fix some later functions that had you messed up in the first place. Ugh! Been there before and probably will be there again. When it happens and it’s been about an hour already, just take my advice and walk away for a few hours to clear your mind. Coming back to it the next morning with a fresh mind and fresh eyes usually makes an issue stick out in such an obvious form you’ll be happy you took off.

#2 Get a Second Opinion

Get a second pair of eyes on your work. You can rub your eyes all you want but still never see clearly. And it may not be your vision, it may just be your lack of understanding or knowledge. One thing I learned early in this business is that I’m not the smartest, but if I can find others that are smarter than me to help when I need them, I’ll still win.

#3 Spend Time On Another Project

It’s never good to waste time. Especially when the weekend is fast approaching and you’ve been pulling some late nights on some deliverables. I refer back to my one-hour law; if you’ve made no progress in an hour, find another project that you know you can pick up and make steady progress on. There is a slight chance the time away working on something else may job your mind on what can help get you through your main setback. Even if there isn’t, you’ll get a sense of accomplishment at the end of your day knowing that you finished some things instead of lost 6+ hours making absolutely no headway on just one piece of work.

#4 Research and Read a Book

There is a possibility you may not know everything. I know crazy right? So why not take some time to look up your exact issue on Google? You’d be surprised at how many other people will have had the same question. While you’re searching the inter-webs why not check out a few forums like Designers Talk or FreelanceSwitch. Great places to put your questions out there and get support from other designers and developers. You can also take this time to read up on your HTML or CSS skills. Remember that bookmark you left on the second chapter of that “Build Your Own Website The Right Way Using HTML & CSS“, well why not pick that book back up and continue reading up. We’re part of a fast paced and ever-changing world so try not to get left behind in technology, otherwise you could be working much harder  or longer than you need to.

#5 Relax and Inform

For me it’s music or playing Wii with my kids. Go ahead and indulge a bit into something you enjoy to do. The work will still be there. If your project is pending, go ahead and let yourself off the hook and contact your client(s) and inform them of the setback and that you’ll need some extra time to complete it correctly. It’s key to be honest here because a mountain of other issues will arise later if you don’t. So go ahead and set that expectation to follow-up when you’re back on track, not a projected fix time/date, but a call or email when you action have it figured out and are able to move forward.

So what are your biggest or most recent frustrations in work? Do you have some other ways to handle setbacks? Let us know in the comments below.

Image credits: iStock Photo

Building Your Brand Through Your Brochure

All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Marketing

The keys to persuasive, effective marketing materials are great design and informative, persuasive content. Content is both words and supporting imagery that conveys what benefits a consumer will derive from the product/service you are offering.  Think of brochures as either the initial “handshake” of your business with a client or the last impression.  Your business cards and brochures are essential parts of your brand and can certainly impact the marketability of your business and attracting potential clientele.  This week I’d like to highlight the key components to a stand out & effective brochure.

Content can include charts, images, diagrams, listings and other graphic elements that highlight key benefits of your business services/products.  Also use of calls to action can be critical to persuasion and getting the consumer to act on your solicitation.  Also know that the caliber of writing of your brochure will certainly determine the effectiveness of your message and brand.  If you aren’t the greatest writer, farm it out to a business or colleague that can.

White space is an essential part of every single marketing piece, namely brochures. The lines between text and imagery are white space; which allows your readers’ eyes relax and gives them a momentary break from the content.  You never want intake overload but also don’t want your content to look too sparse.  White space can also be used to separate important points.  For example, the brochure below is an example of too much white space & too little content.

Colors evoke feelings and emotions, and can certainly help to build a customers’ first or last impression of your business. The colors you select for your brochure design should definitely compliment or match the colors in your logo or company name.  Use of vibrant colors should be done in selective areas and in moderation.

Font selection be stylistic but be easily readable and the size should be chosen based on the volume of information you are trying to convey. It should not be too large (over 14 pt.) or too small (less than 10 pt.) The font should reflect your brand style and set the tone of your organization – elegant for a bridal shop, powerful for an auto body shop. Lastly, the body copy font should differ from your headlines, but you should not exceed the use of 3 different fonts within your brochure design.

Paper selected should be reflective of the quality of your business…Yeah, I said it.  Using flimsy paper or a cheap card stock may give a flimsy impression of your business. Choosing glossy or matte finish is purely subjective.

Imagery plays a critical role just like your written content. Take your time when selecting the right imagery and the placement of them.  Also, do not forget to check your resolution on the images you select.  The higher the resolution the better your picture will come across in print. The lower the resolution, the more blurry and unprofessional your brochure will look when printed. FYI -300 dpi or higher is best for clear, color printing.

The Design of your brochure should be simple but effective.  Feel free to break away from the normal trifold and display your brand & company character.

 

Among the sea of typical trifolds, how do you make your brochure stand out?