Too often in our enthusiasm to get the look and feel right, we forget that Content makes up for one of the primary deliverables. Content planning (what, why) and delivery (How, When, Where) is key to design so next time when you are creating those pretty wire-frames inserting “Lorem Ipsum….” pause, think is this good content?
At present, I am working on integration of a number of portals into one single seamless experience. As of now, each of these portals have a different look and feel, with its own Information Architecture and are even built on different technologies. The main issue here is that in addition to the design, content too, is not consistent.
While Portal A is a repository of documents and templates, Portal B provides a number of reports and metrics on performance of products and services. Portal C acts more as a HelpDesk portal.
Certainly, the purpose of each of these portals are unique and different from one another. Users accessing these portals expect information to displayed to suit their needs. While Portal A can be designed like a document management system, Portal B would be better of with a dashboard like look-and-feel, similar to google analytics or the likes.
Good wireframes need good content
This is where Wireframes can provide a good visual aid to what the final design may look like. Wireframes are excellent for creating quick mock-ups of form, functionality and content. At the same time it also gives an opportunity to know what the information on would look like on the real thing. However, it is important to note that wireframes fail if the dummy content is not representative of the actual data. Using “Lorem Ipsum…” text every ads little value to your wireframe design.
One of the key take-away working on this project was the importance of getting stakeholders to sign-off on the content during the wireframe stage itself. Though it may seem difficult and content may not be 100% ready, it is important to convey to stakeholders what and how content would be presented on the website. This is specially true if you are working on multilingual websites or web applications.
In this case, Portal B had tabular data that looked great in wireframes, in English. Translating the data to German or Norwegian did not make it look as pretty. Hence the need to get a sign-off or atleast gain some approval on content.
Think. Content does influence design.
Tags: Content Strategy, Search Engine Optimisation, usability, user experience design, Wireframe Design