Content Before Design

I’ve been wanting to write again for a while, but I’ve been waiting until I could work on a design. Waiting for a long time, actually. It turns out, designing a site with no existing content is hard stupid.

Realign > Redesign

My problem reminded me of a great A List Apart article I read a few years ago by Cameron Moll, about how great designers don’t redesign, they realign. Most websites follow the Redesign Cycle:

1. Develop a well-thought out redesign plan
2. Launch it in all it’s new shiny greatness!
3. Update it, sometimes
4. Update it less
5. Realize your site looks old
6. Think about a redesign
7. Repeat step 1

Realign, on the other hand, might look more like this:

1. Look at your existing site
2. Determine what parts could be improved
3. Tweak and improve one aspect of the site
4. Launch your changes
5. Repeat step 1

Even calling it a “launch” is a little misleading. The more time and money that’s spent on a large, interconnected design leading up to the Great Big Launch, the bigger the implication is that you shouldn’t even think about messing with any part of it for a very long time.

Flipping it around

The idea for this site is to work on content first. Not a new idea, by the way. Letting content inform design is a best practice du jour, though it’s usually dropped in at the top of the Redesign Cycle. This site is my attempt at going a step further.

Start with just content, in a simple visual layout, while the design is continuously realigned around that content as they both develop together.