Graphic design is my passion
Many people start their website projects by thinking about how they want things to look – even when they don’t yet know what content will be included.
Good design is about more than how pretty something looks. Design is what your users experience as they interact with your content. Are your potential and current clients able to do what you need them to on your website? We look at why “content before design” is a strong philosophy.
If you ask people what they think of a website, the first thing they almost always comment on is how it looks. Sometimes these are useful comments: “I have difficulty finding what I’m looking for,” or “I like Instagram because it gives me a never-ending stream of stuff to look at.” Often, though, the overarching comments people make are more concerned about aesthetics: “It’s ugly,” or “They have such a lovely-looking app.”
There’s nothing wrong with these thoughts, of course. Users can and will have whatever opinions they want about a website (and you, as someone with a web presence, will almost certainly hear all of them, often simultaneously). And it’s important to listen to what your current and potential customers are saying about your website’s looks… to a point.
Design is about more than how pretty something looks. Design is essentially “what the user experiences as they interact with your content.” That does include things like what colors you use, fonts chosen, all of that. But you, as a website owner, need to worry more about how people are interacting with your content, and whether they’re doing what you need them to.
It’s no secret, but most people don’t acknowledge the fact some of the ugliest websites on the planet are also some of the most successful. In many cases, we’ve convinced ourselves that ugly designs are “fine,” or they couldn’t be done in any other way, so they’re not really “ugly” after all. In some cases, people go completely through the looking glass and argue that the design is actually really good, and we should start copying it.
Ugly, popular websites:
That last one tends to surprise people, but Facebook is objectively ugly. It was a welcome respite from MySpace’s “do whatever you want” ethos, but it’s insanely cluttered and hard to find anything specific. I dare you to try to change your privacy preferences, if you can even figure out where the specific setting you’re looking for lives.
If your website is doing what you want it to, be careful before you redesign. The whole point of the design is to get your readers/customers/audience to do something specific, and if it’s working, why monkey with it? The old adage “don’t fix what ain’t broken” definitely applies to websites.
All that being said …
We’re not saying that your website is definitely fine the way it is and your yellow-text-on-green-background is just lovely. There are numerous reasons, including user-experience deficiencies, slow loading times and disjointed branding, that definitely call for a minor or even total redesign. But you need to be eyeing up more than just “pretty” when you go to find your new look.
So what should you keep in mind when you’re looking for a redesign? Here are some thoughts about the value of a content before design philosophy.
We're a full-stop shop - we can help with design tweaks to full-out revamps. If you feel like your site needs a facelift, drop us a line before ringing up your closest expensive website plastic surgeon.
When considering how effective your current design is and whether to redesign, think about the following:
If your website exists to drive e-commerce traffic, but you can’t feature your store on your home page, that’s probably not great in terms of functionality. Similarly, if you are a photography studio, but your design features all images at 500 pixels wide, that may not help drive reprint or digital-download sales. Are you a content producer who has tiny text and enough popover materials to cover the reader’s entire screen?
Start by figuring out the job your website needs to do – for you and for your audience. Then think about what content is required to do that job. Then, the design work comes from fitting together all of those pieces.
So… that’s a great new theme you found there on AwesomeThemesForNoGoodReason.com. It seems to require the use of a vertical logo, though, and yours is horizontal. Or maybe your current fonts say “Tweenager Justin Beiber Fandom Website” but your brand is more “Super Professional Accountants For Hire.”
Yes, you can absolutely tweak those individual things without a complete redesign in either case, but sometimes they’re indicative of the feeling your customers will get from your site.
Think about the message you want your brand to convey, then decide whether your current (or prospective) design really says that. Don’t be afraid to consider A/B testing and focus groups for this. You’re probably not your own ideal audience, so ask the people who are!.
Remember how we said content before design is a great philosophy? That’s because you haven’t lived until you tweak your theme and realize you need to recrop 600 images to an entirely new proportion to fit the change. There are definitely times when you have to bite the bullet and put in some hard work (or, ahem, hire a bunch of amazing penguins to do it for you), but there are also times where you might decide that an extra 50 pixels of width in your page body isn’t worth the hours of rearranging it might entail.
Before you change everything in favor of that nifty new theme you saw, consider the content and function of your website. Does your design – current or potential – meet your functionality requirements? Does it fit with your branding? How much content rework would be needed to change it?
On the other hand, if you’re thinking “my current design is probably just fine,” don’t assume that without taking a close look at your brand and your business goals.
