97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know

Chapter 57. Design for Content First

Marli Mesibov

How do you start a design? Some designers start by identifying the goal. Others start by blocking out sections of a typical home screen. There are many approaches, but content-first design will guarantee that you consider what your end user most needs.

Content-first design is an approach to UX that begins with, well, content. More specifically, this process connects design elements to the exact information your end user needs and wants. In some ways, content-first design is a mindset, but it is also a methodology, with steps that anyone working in UX can follow to improve their work.

The Content-First Mindset

When content comes last, projects run late and budgets run high. It happens often—the project is “complete,” and then it turns out that none of the existing content works with the new design templates. So either content needs to be rewritten or designs need to be amended. From this perspective, content-first is a mindset. It’s a way of looking at a need—be it a transactional portal or a library of articles—and considering the types of content as part of the requirements.

For example, in a digital library the articles might be intended for several different audiences. If you review the articles and find that out, you’ll know that creating a tagging system is a requirement of the new digital library. Perhaps some but not all ...