Jeff Bridgforth :: Webcraftsman

Crafting Web sites since 1999

I am a Web designer passionate about creating elegant, inspiring, and usable Web experiences that connect with an audience and fulfull business objectives.

Design or Content? Wrong Question

May 18, 2007

Design (Web) · User Experience

Question - which is more important, content or design?

I like what this comic from Josh Porter com­mu­ni­cates and I like how he chose to com­mu­ni­cate it. those that read/use our Web sites are not so con­cerned about which is more impor­tant, design or con­tent. What is impor­tant to them is that they can use it or that they want to use it.

MySpace is a great exam­ple. From a design stand­point, I hate it and it irri­tates me. I no longer use it partly because I did not like the design but I also did not care for the raunchy ads or the friend requests I was receiv­ing. But I digress …
A lot of peo­ple do like the site because they use it. They use it to keep up with their social net­work. (One of the biggest rea­sons I left MySpace is that my social net­work was not using it. But they are using Face­book and I use it.) Peo­ple using MySpace are not think­ing about design or con­tent but that the site is allow­ing them to do what they want to do, keep up with those in their social network.

This comic serves as a good reminder to me to keep what is impor­tant to the user as the most impor­tant thing. I think both good design and good con­tent will lead to bet­ter use but a good eval­u­a­tion of a site would be, is it being used?

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