As a young designer, often times you can find yourself designing websites for best case scenarios. If the titles are all the perfect length. If the copy is written succinctly. If the images are all expertly curated and handpicked from professional photographers. If the assets are not only tastefully chosen, but perfectly consistent, then my web design will look and be perfect.
The more websites you design, the more you start to design for the worst case scenarios. What if the client puts a rainbow gradient in the header and uses a photo taken with a toaster? These are important questions. These are questions which point to the heart of what a website really is. It is content. The better you get as a web designer, the more your designs cater to these all too common ‘artistic’ choices.
Too often, as is the case for much of the design industry, discussions surrounding web design are insular.
The design industry as a whole is based on visual appeal. Designers globally thrive on pushing pixel-perfect visuals that make your eyeballs feel good.
The problem with many web designs is that the focus is completely wrong. It is purely based on how it looks, rather than what it is providing.
It begs the question of wether hiring an agency to build a custom website is the best use of your budget. There’s certainly many cases where a custom website may in fact be the best choice for the project, but the fact is that most companies could not only operate, but thrive on a free or inexpensive template website such as Squarespace or Shopify.
And what about that juicy budget? Well, it’s difficult to have these discussions when you operate as a ‘web design’ agency rather than as a ‘design’ agency, or if you lack the experience or pragmatism to re-position yourself as a consultant or partner of value. Because if you are able to identify the core of what the client is trying to accomplish, something amazing can happen. You can now take that budget and spend it on wonderful things. Things that could be truly useful for your clients business. Things that could make a cultural impact, internally and externally. Things like creating engaging and useful content. Content that could make a real difference in the lives of those you are trying to serve.
I have worked on far too many projects that have gotten to the end or near the end of the design process, and all of a sudden it comes time for ‘content entry’. That term that strikes fear into designers and clients the world alike.
As if saving the most important part of the web design for last and treating it as the job for an intern or someone with no vested interest or expertise in the business is as normal as milking a cow.
The truth is that a website is content. The true job of a good web design is merely to organize that content in a way that is thoughtful. To hopefully introduce hierarchy and present that content in way that is pleasant and easily digestible. If it is innovative as well, then that is just a bonus.
At the smallest agency I worked at, it became as obvious as the spots on a cow that for a proper web design, content needs to come first.
The content needs to preclude the entire design process. The design needs to be based on the content. Not the other way around, which is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
This is where it gets tricky, because clients can struggle to visualize how content could fit into a website without first seeing the website.
It seems like a simple enough solution. Provide a wireframe or use a free theme as an example.
But this is not where the problem lies. It lies before all of this happens. It lies in the conversations before you begin the web design process.
It lies in questioning why they need a website in the first place. It lies in the discussion of what type of content they will be showing on the website. It lies in understanding what value or information they are trying to provide to those they serve. It lies in understanding that a web design is essentially an empty house. It is the empty canvas. Now, what you you are planning to fill it with, that’s where the hard work comes in.
