In our first week of module 301, we went through a short introduction of the deliverables and also the basics of content design / designing for content. Often we can get stuck when we create a website without considering the content, this can end up in the website looking busy as there was no consideration for what text was going within a certain area, or what images were to be used. Content is the core piece of design. Content is what makes our products e.g. website usable and we need to ensure there is a hierarchy so users know where to look and how it flows from one another. Another issue is ensuring the content is written as to how people think/search online, for example if we type General Practioner or GP into google the results are a lot lower than if we search doctor, this is because doctor is a more commonly used term, even though all three mean the same thing and we can see this on Google Trends
Also when looking at content we need to think whether it is push or pull content, push content is “look at this new iPhone” whether pull content is “this cool new iPhone will make your life easier and put the world in your hand for only £500″, pull content is what draws the customer in and makes the chance of them engaging with your product a lot higher.
When creating our website we need to go through certain steps, these include discovery, plan, text design, sketching, visuals, prototypes, testing, discuss (at this point we can return to the sketching stage if not happy) and finally refine. It is key to start at discovery and work through each step so as to cover everything and ensure the website you create is content focussed and that is presented well to the user. It also helps to understand what your audience is, what you want and what you need from the website, when you should publish and through what channels you will do this.