So you’ve decided to take the plunge and get a website. Fantastic! Maybe it’s your company’s first real web presence outside of a Facebook page, or a redesign of an old, outdated website from before mobile design was a thing. Either way, you’ve done your research and decided to make this next step in your company’s growth. You’ve vetted a web design company, signed the contract, and paid the deposit. Now you can just sit back and relax while someone else does the work of putting together a modern, well-performing website for you.
Right?
Except your web design team has emailed you a list of deliverables they’ll need to make your website come to life. And there it is, innocently nestled between hosting credentials and mockup approvals:
The dreaded content.
They’re already asking you to write content? But you haven’t even seen the website designs yet!
If this sounds like your situation, your web design team may be following the principle of Content-First Design. In this post, we’re going to go over the basics of Content-First Design, why it’s great, and why you should really be asking questions if your design team isn’t asking you for your content up-front.
Content-First vs Design-First:
What’s the difference?
Content-First Design is when the content for a webpage is created before the webpage design. This can be everything from the text on the page, to the images and videos.
Design-First Design is when a webpage design is created with placeholder content — usually Lorem Ipsum — used to block out areas on the page where content is expected to go.
Now more than ever, you’ll hear design teams touting the importance of having content first, and design second.