Kathleen Murtagh: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ceardach/4549876293/

Content-first design ain’t herding cats

Kill Lorem Ipsum for good.

PJ Souders
Jun 21, 2013 · 3 min read

I use the term “content-first design” a lot, but haven’t had to explain it in great detail. A colleague recently asked me to do so, here are my rough and random thoughts on the topic. Research later.

Trends:

  1. The long-term (20-year!) trend in textual design is away from publisher/creator control toward reader/user control. Magazines/newspapers/books → desktop browsers → mobile browsers → (mobile) apps → content scrapers (e.g. Instapaper)

Responses:

  1. Have AWESOME CONTENT that everyone wants to share. If you can’t do this, go home. If users are viewing/sharing your AWESOME CONTENT in Instapaper or Pinterest, that’s better than no one viewing it at all.

These trends scared me at first. But: designers who plan before they decorate will be more important than ever. You can design for Instapaper. I was about to compare it to “herding cats” but then I realized, if you have AWESOME CAT FOOD (CONTENT) the cats will come to you. It is all about the CAT FOOD. AWESOME CAT FOOD will lure the cats.

SO: Kill Lorem ipsum for good. Don’t get hung up on “experience.” (UI, IA, workflow). That’s herding, not luring. And never start a design without two things in hand:

  1. Content

I. M. H. O.

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