Why Content Strategy and UX Must Work Together
Content strategy has been superior in marketing departments for decades. However, the importance of content strategy in UX design has surfaced just a few years ago.
The experts realized that you can’t impress with the design if the content is not impressive as well. I curated some important points which support this idea and further explain the merging of content strategy and UX. So, for all of you who are still a little doubtful, let’s go on and find out some more information.
UX Attracts, Content Attains
There is no arguing about the importance of aesthetics and no one can undermine the work of UX designers. However, if you bring the site to the perfection, you’ll still need engaging content in order to bring back the user.
No matter how superficial do you find your users to be, no one will spend their time on something that has nothing relevant to offer. Use Reddit as an example, they don’t have some eye-catching design but they still have a ton of users because of the content that they offer.
The fact that in 2008 none of the UX conferences had had a section about content strategy while in 2010 almost all of them did, says enough. We’re talking about the big names such as the UX Week, IA Summit, UX London, User Interface Conference, and SXSW.
Design with Content
If you start looking at the design in the context of content the whole process will be much more wholesome. It is important to grasp the idea that the design is a tool which is used to present the valuable content to the users.
The 4 basics that are required from content strategy before the UX process are:
- Content priority on the website
- Sitemap (or website hierarchy)
- Identification of needed pages/templates
- Content model (if you are designing for a content management system)
Use the content model as a guide in case you have any designing doubts. During that phase, determine and ensure the full functionality of a page/template and understand what is needed in terms of functionality.
When it comes to the writing process itself, here are some tips that can help you:
Write your own copy –No one knows better what goes well with your design than you. You can always find a professional copywriter to go over your text and give it a final touch,
Don’t throw away the old content — For those who are dealing with redesigning a site, try to keep the old content and just make some adjustments. It will give you a good base of what to lay out.
Get inspired — If you get stuck in a rut, look through the work of your competitors and see what do they have to offer. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should copy anyone’s work, you should only use them as an example so that when you start with your project you can have the image of both the text and the design.
Content-First Approach Achieves Mobile-Friendly
If you want your design to be mobile-friendly, the content-first design is the best approach to it. The content-first approach determines the breakpoints for the responsive design.
Instead of degrading the page’s layout for smaller devices, the experience should follow the progressive enhancement as the screen size decreases or increases.
As an example, we’ll take a look at Entrepreneur’s mobile-friendly design and the incorporated content.
All the available content information can be seen on the very first page:
- Search bar
- Prioritized navigation (the rest is outlined in hamburger menu)
- Feature story with the main image
- Secondary stories available upon a scroll
You can see that all important content is available and implemented in the design. Achieve this by simply designing the most relevant content for the smallest device and work your way up.
If you drop the content later, you’ll end up with redesigning and restructuring and there is no need to waste your time and energy on that.
Conclusion
Those who wonder whether the user experience or content strategy is more important are on the completely wrong path. You can’t have one without the other, and that’s a fact.
Even though UX and content management teams can sometimes battle for the throne, the synergy of these forces can have a much better effect than their individuality. Both user experience and content strategy have the same goal and they could never be as strong apart as they could be combined.
Daniela McVicker is a writer and editor at Top Writers Review. She graduated from Durham University and has an MA in Psychological Science. Besides her expertise in writing, Daniela has also shown her talent in the marketing department. By emphasizing the importance of integrating content strategy with user experience design, supported by her team she managed to upgrade the company’s status.
