Here at ireckon the start of a new project means many things; meetings, project planning, time management, market research and most importantly in the client’s mind the start of their design.
While there are a lot of tasks we do here at ireckon to get the design underway, there are also some tasks which the client can undertake to help get the project off to a great start. These include: doing a bit of market research themselves to find out the style of site they like (which might sound simple, but surprisingly, doesn‘t actually happen that often) , and the reason I am writing this blog today; researching and writing the content they want to appear on their homepage or any other significant pages.
Now, you may be thinking that content would normally come at the end of a project. However, the difference the content of a site makes to the designer when they are designing a site is huge! I am not talking about the final draft of content, the whole privacy policy nor each section of the services page, for example. What I am talking about is what call to actions they are looking for, what elements they want on their homepage, the content they want in designed elements of the site as well as the content for their homepage and any other major pages.
While "Lorem Ipsum" may suffice temporarily to fill in the blanks, it is no replacement for real content. Real content gives the designer a feel for what the client is trying to achieve from their site, what they want the users of their site to do, whether it be contact, buy, register or simply browse.
Too many times a site is designed with "Lorem Ipsum" or dummy content and then, when the real content turns up, the designer / developer goes to plug it in and it doesn't fit where the dummy content was placed. This results in a ‘square plug in a round hole’ appearance, and is the result of a ‘we can do it along the way’ type approach.
For the best results the content should be written and provided upfront and preferably all written within the same time period, as this gives consistency to the content and allows you to plan your website around your content, not the other way around.
Remember, CONTENT IS KING.
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