The problem? Without finalized content, design decisions often have to be remade later, causing delays, ballooning costs, and a disjointed user experience.
Design in the absence of content is not design—it’s decoration.
Jeffrey Zeldman, Studio Zeldman
Imagine you’ve built an elegant home page featuring a minimalist “hero” section with room for just a short headline and button. It looks great—until the copy arrives, and it’s three paragraphs of crucial product details your client insists go front and center. Suddenly, your visually striking hero area is overshadowed by a block of text that doesn’t fit. The design team has to scramble to rework the layout, reallocate white space, and possibly redesign the entire page structure to accommodate the unexpected content. If the team had followed a content-first approach, they’d have known the exact volume and nature of the copy from the start, allowing them to craft a layout that handles the content smoothly—without backtracking or extra costs.
Content must be complete before design can begin because design serves the content, not the other way around.
A “content first” approach flips the script. By focusing on substance—what your site will say, show, and do—before diving into design, you lay the groundwork for a smoother project. It’s a bit like mapping out the rooms in a house before choosing the paint colors and furniture. Starting with content not only saves time and money, but also results in more effective, user-friendly websites that truly serve your audience’s needs.
If the team had followed a content-first approach, they’d have known the exact volume and nature of the copy from the start