At #digpen V: Plymouth, 29 Sep 2012. Discussing the vital role of good content to creating great user experiences, the perils of designing without real content, and tips from content strategy practice you can use to get better content from your clients sooner in the project process.

1. Designing Content
or, how web designers can
stop worrying and
learn to love
content strategy
Sophie Dennis ● @sophiedennis
web design and development consultants

2. Content
Appropriate, compelling content is vital to any site’s
effectiveness. Should you need assistance preparing
content for your website, we provide a range of content
development services including copy editing and proof-
reading, creating complete site copy from scratch, and
sourcing original photography and illustration. If you
would be interested in these services, please get in
touch to discuss your requirements and likely costs.
Cayenne Website Proposal Boilerplate
c. April 2005

3. Main Heading
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim
ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut
aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum
dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non
proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

4. 10px Arial
Designing in the absence of content
leads to bad design

5. What the designer saw?

6. “Content precedes design.
Design in the absence of content is not design,
it’s decoration.”
- Jeffrey Zeldman, 5 May 08
http://twitter.com/#!/zeldman/statuses/804159148

7. zeldman.com
http://www.zeldman.com/2012/05/18/web-design-manifesto-2012/

8. “content first”
a design process
not a project process

9. The Content Tragedy Life-Cycle
Design the site using “lorem ipsum” Pray the final content fits
Demand that the client supplies all the Still waiting…
content before you start work
Give them a new content management Is it really a technology
system problem?
Bully the client into hiring a copywriter Rinse, repeat

10. How I learned to stop worrying
and love spreadsheets

11. How I learned to stop worrying
about the sitemap

12. Learn to love the Content Inventory / Audit
“A Mind-Numbingly Detailed Odyssey Through Your Web Site” – Jeff Veen
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/doing-content-inventory

13. Page Templates #FTW
Example from Alpha.gov in Extracting the Content, Relly Annett-Baker http://24ways.org/2011/extracting-the-content
See also Content Templates to the Rescue, Erin Kissane http://www.alistapart.com/articles/content-templates-to-the-rescue/

14. a Content Strategist is a
Managing Editor
for your website

15. integrate
use smart deliverables to
get to the content conversation
iterate
designing with content delivers both
better design and better content
collaborate
great user experiences need both
great content and great design

16. Sophie Dennis
sophie@cayenne.co.uk
twitter@sophiedennis
zer.ply/sophiedennis
linkedin/in/sophiedennis
www.cayenne.co.uk