Design or Content? Wrong Question

May 18, 2007

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?