What I Wish I Had Known When I Graduated College
Better Stakeholder Interviews
Ready. Launch. Update!
Take a Break!
Cognition
Discontent
- @zeldman
- Founder & Executive Creative Director
- Jeffrey’s articles Feed
- Bio on Happycog.com
Have you ever had to fit three lead stories onto a web page that was designed for only one? Ever needed to hastily rework a design because nobody realized that a product description might run to more than 
200 characters until after you delivered the templates? Ever found yourself slapping big yellow alert banners and screaming headlines onto an otherwise tastefully designed home page because the layout actually distracted your users from the site’s most important content? (And why did the layout distract them? Not because it was elegantly designed, but because it was designed before the client figured out the content strategy.)
It doesn’t take too many experiences like this to realize that content is not just a writer’s problem, it is a design problem. As good advertising comes from the product, and good filmmaking begins with a riveting story, good web design starts with content. If you don’t believe me, try designing a universal template.
On the web, design is almost always in the service of content. And yet our designs are often hostile to content. Try to read a Roger Ebert review on your smartphone. For that matter, try to read it on your desktop computer. The creators of Mr. Ebert’s site have lathered it with so many layers of navigation, so many options, so much SEO-inspired linkage, that actually reading the review is far from the treat it should be. It’s as if a master chef crafted the perfect meal, only to have it served by a careless waiter in a chipped, dirty plastic bowl.
If our designs don’t serve content, users will find ways to get the content anyway. Used by millions, apps like Instapaper and Readability now deliver great reading experiences when the designer forgets to.
Of course, users have always had the ability to tailor their web reading experience: a custom style sheet here, a non-default font setting there. But these days, it’s not just those with special needs or quirky personalities who are changing our designs on the fly. It’s ordinary users who care about content.
And just as, for every user viewing our pixel-perfect masterpiece in the “right” browser and at the screen dimensions we envisioned, there has always been someone else trying to use it in an older browser or crummy kiosk, now more and more of our users are engaging with our content—or trying to—via smartphone and netbook. These users don’t have time—or screen real estate—to patiently wade through all the crap we’ve poured into the interface against our better judgement merely because the stakeholders requested it. These users want content. If we don’t deliver it, Flipboard—or someone else’s site—will.
Responsive design, mobile-first responsive design, and content strategy for adaptive design have made important inroads but there’s lots more work to be done. For one thing, there’s the dilemma of who pays for content. Our designs have trained users to ignore ads, so we make ever more annoying ads to try to grab those eyeballs back. To the extent that we succeed, we create more customers for Instapaper and Readability, where those ads are removed.
Responsive ads address the technical and visual aspects of the problem—or might if someone were working on them—but they don’t deliver the key metric, which is attention. How can we simultaneously satisfy the reader by allowing them to focus on content in a clutter-free environment, yet also satisfy the advertiser who is tired of paying to be ignored? What are you doing to help readers focus on the message they came to read—and your client or boss wants to deliver?
30 Responses
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/DYBrwkuO
Thu, May 24, 2012 10:49:59
Good adverts comes from a product, good filmmaking begins with a riveting story, good web design starts with content http://t.co/jKbpJ3Y6
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:02:07
Discontent. A great article on the importance of content in modern design by @zeldman http://t.co/9dkNZMDr
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:02:59
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/KTAmm6ZV
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:04:52
On the web, design is almost always in the service of content. And yet our designs are often hostile to content. http://t.co/oTJuKqHF
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:08:05
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/0jlut85k
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:14:31
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/RnyG51Fa
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:43:04
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/nfZmsMyT
Thu, May 24, 2012 11:48:10
Content is King when is comes to designing engaging experiences. #UX & #Content both should go hand in hand.. http://t.co/VCvS1yYM
Thu, May 24, 2012 12:12:14
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/fa2oRyon
Thu, May 24, 2012 12:30:39
New in Cognition: why content is not just a writer’s problem.
Thu, May 24, 2012 4:34:38
Design supporting content - yep, critical. Content serving readers needs, not just ours - critical and harder still! http://t.co/cB2wDBaq
Thu, May 24, 2012 4:46:40
Discontent by @zeldman http://t.co/jm30sZxQ
Thu, May 24, 2012 5:50:51
A-MEN. “New in Cognition: why content is not just a writer’s problem.” http://t.co/GrHCYxba (via @zeldman)
Thu, May 24, 2012 5:58:12
New in Cognition: why content is not just a writer’s problem. http://t.co/8rzuYb2V
Thu, May 24, 2012 6:36:50
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/bZeKCTQz
Thu, May 24, 2012 9:10:23
Good adverts come from a product, good filmmaking begins with a riveting story, good web design starts with content. http://t.co/t5VtKGEV
Fri, May 25, 2012 12:53:52
@zeldman hits the nail on the head once again. Content is a design problem.
Fri, May 25, 2012 4:11:18
Films serve great scripts, also ads via product placement. Are ads embedded in content too easy to resist?
Fri, May 25, 2012 6:43:39
Great article by Jeff Zeldman on why content strategy is so important to design on Cognition. http://t.co/7JJxGYAz
Fri, May 25, 2012 7:58:41
Content is not just a writer's problem, it's a design problem. http://t.co/uNgNekkC
Fri, May 25, 2012 8:24:43
are you a chef or a line cook? http://t.co/KzHPbKSv
Fri, May 25, 2012 9:38:23
"Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem. @zeldman explains why in Cognition: http://t.co/ZPQPz5Hk"
Fri, May 25, 2012 10:14:17
Discontent http://t.co/jtQE5UtN
Fri, May 25, 2012 5:23:09
Yes! "…content is not just a writer’s problem, it is a design problem" via @zeldman http://t.co/lpEwXHmx #contentstrategy #editorial #design
Tue, May 29, 2012 12:37:45
Content is a designers problem too. Discontent - @happycog http://t.co/vJk4TlUu
Tue, May 29, 2012 2:56:30
http://t.co/AZ30h9ZS Great article about the importance of a proper content strategy when designing websites #sogeti
Wed, May 30, 2012 4:33:08
"content is not just a writer’s problem, it is a design problem"
Wed, May 30, 2012 11:46:51
Content is not just a writer's problem, it is a design problem http://t.co/d97nDLpF
Mon, August 27, 2012 10:22:29
Our designs have trained users to ignore ads, so we make ever more annoying ads to try to grab those eyeballs back:
Thu, September 13, 2012 9:59:41