Content Design learnings
I believe I have misunderstood the concept of Content Design from the beginning. As someone who loves design, the course name attracted me. But I am happy that I chose it because in every session I learned something new. With these new eyes, I see every website differently, I see errors and mistakes everywhere, and I see how important the role of a content designer really is.
But what actually is Content Design?
User-centered content helps customers learn what they want to know, find the right information, and do what they want to do with more confidence, and quickly enough. They are more sure of the next step whether it is to checkout or even if they want to log out. User-centricity means what the customers want to do by choice as an informed decision and not what the organization wants them to do.
Think, for example, of a website that is solely dedicated to selling furniture. To content design this website, you would have to make the purchase process as simple as possible. The heading would be ‘Furniture for sale,’ the picture of the furniture, and a button that says ‘Add furniture to the basket.’
Your furniture website has been content-designed. Copy, layout, and design are all designed to make a single action effortless.
Are content design and copywriting the same thing?
In the past, I would have agreed with this, but that was untrue.
In Vinish Garg’s words, “copywriting promotes a product, content design makes it easy for customers to purchase it.”. That is the best way to explain the difference; one is about selling, the other is about converting.
Sure, copywriting is crucial to content design. It is also a multidisciplinary skill — it attracts both copywriters and designers equally, and a knowledge of both is essential to success.
Content designers have to be able to work with text, images, and video, all at the same time.
Is there a difference between content design, content strategy, and UX?
I’d say quite a bit.
It is true that content design could be a part of a content strategy, but it will be only one of many things considered. For example, we can look at a specific brand how it will use its content over the next 6 months, taking into account things such as how blogs can improve keyword performance, how social media could drive more traffic to the website, how the tone of voice should be evolved to better suit the audience, how videos and images could play their part, and how every aspect of a brand’s content could work harder to deliver better results.
UX is usually a part that comes after content design. Once we have decided how the content should function, UX ensures it looks good and makes sense to the end-user.
A good content designer makes something useful. UX makes it easy to use.
As a result
Content design helps make websites more user-friendly and helps them rank higher in search engines. Basically, it simplifies, speeds up, and enhances the user’s experience online by doing all the hard work for them.
The first step is to understand your audience.
A big thanks go to Vinish Garg Content Designer (Professor at FH Joanneum Graz, Austria), for introducing me and my colleagues to Content Design. Thanks to his dedication and the endless resources he gave us after each lecture, we were able to better understand this subject.
Reference:
https://uxwritinghub.com/the-rise-of-content-design/
https://uxdesign.cc/principles-of-good-content-design-4c55622c9919
