I just finished an article for Boxes and Arrows exploring the risks of diminishing the role of content within our web designs. In the past, it’s been an area that I’ve been quite content to leave to others to ‘handle’ and fill-in downstream after I’ve completed my design work. At that point, I was ready to move on to the next design challenge.
The funny thing was that the more I distanced myself from this ‘downstream’ process, the more problems that emerged when I’d stumble upon the design in test (or worse) production environments. Now, I’m not suggesting that my lack of deep involvement getting the design actually built-out was the issue. It was my lack of concern and assumption that my content partners just ‘knew what I knew’ about the design and they’d make it all work and fit together nicely. That’s not always the case. In fact, that knowledge gap is sometimes incredibly large.
The Content Conundrum explores the problem, why I believe it’s happening, and what we as a design community can do about it. I hope you enjoy it.
