If Content is Really King, Then What is Design?
If you've spent any time online in the past 5 years, you're bound to have heard the phrase content is king. Heated debates have gone on for years to see if it truly is or isn't king - I will not be entering that debate. My goal in this article is to shed light on the discussion and also show a different side of the topic in general.
A lot of people will base their entire website around the idea of the statement - Content is King. But what happens when people get to your site based on your killer headline title? What are they going to see? Will they be in awe or will they think they've hit a spam site and quickly hit the back button? Thats what we're going to be discussing in this article today.
In my opinion, if content is king, then design has to be the shiny robe and crown that the king wears. It's what makes the king look good and it helps the king portray the positive image that he is after. If he came out to hold court in house slippers, a dirty, stained tank top and old shorts, who would really take him serious? Your website design is the same way and should be treated like it was the icing on the cake for your king content.
I originally posted a twitter message with the statement that if content is king, design has to be the shiny robe and crown and got a lot of positive response from it, so it appears I am not alone in my thinking here. When you really break it down, yes, content may be the king of your site, but without the other items falling in place, the king looks horrible.
So, lets say that your content is the king of the jungle, what would the king of the jungle need in order to look and feel ferocious? Maybe the loud roar, huge teeth and mein? If we were comparing that to the content being the king of the jungle, the mein and loud roar would definitely be the design, right? It's just another perfect example of how content cannot be king without support from the design of the site.
Your content is king, right? Well, if it is and the content was the king in a chess game, what would the design of your site be? The pawns that stand on the front line and protect the king from the enemy? What about the rooks and various other chess pieces on the board?
Your design should be treated like all of the pieces on the chess board because they are the pieces you're using the most and the ones that make the most impact during the game. Make sure your design is making an impact like that - your king depends on it.
People don't follow that rule - ever. So, what are people thinking when they come to your website for the first time? Are they impressed with the design like people who visit Tutorial9 or Web Designer Wall or are they looking at it like just another run of the mill site? We all remember the rush of "make money online" sites right?
Do you remember what they ALL looked like? John Chow and Shoemoney had their sites duplicated more times that anyone else I know - because people thought that is what it was supposed to look like. Standing out, taking your time and getting a design that is worthwhile and high quality will go a lot longer when you're making that first impression with your visitors. Attract their attention and then get them to read your king content.
And now we pass it onto you
What are your thoughts on the subject of content being king? And do you think I am onto something here with my anologies above? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to get your opinions on it.
terrance-oxp
Fantastic article. When content is king, design inevitablely have to be queen.
Anonymous
I dabble in graphics and such, but as far as the content is king set up, I'm a bartender by profession. One of the greatest chefs I ever had the privilege to work with was a stickler on how the plate looked leaving the kitchen. "If it looks delicious, people will blame themselves if it doesn't taste delicious" was a half-serious mantra. The other was that he wasn't cooking for himself; people think chevre, ancho-honey drizzle, and Chilean Sea Bass are fancy even if he's seen enough of the three for a lifetime. The two points to flip over are simply:
1. The better you look, the more you'll see. I.E. if a site is attractive, people will give it the benefit of the doubt and actually read the content. This is of course, for your first time visitor. Design gets them to pick up the book amongst all the others on the shelf, content gets them to read and recommend.
2. Web designers and coders are rarely the target audience. So that passe button or effect that's so uncool in designer circles is probably exactly what non-designers think is the attractive part. That retro-80-grundge shadow effect using pure CSS3 that is graceful in IE6 may impress your friends, but unless your neighbor thinks it looks nice, you may be missing the market.
Of course, the chef that is the source of these opinions also threw saute pans at people, so there may be some trauma involved in my beliefs.
Anonymous
Lots of interesting points made, both in your article and in the comments which follow. I agree, the design supports your content, it shows (or at least implies) that your website is run by a professional and that the content is well thought out - if the King wasn't wearing a crown (or wasn't surrounding by tons of bodyguards), would anyone know he was important?
The points being made about bounce-rates are very important too. The design gets people to stay on your site long enough to read your content. The content gets people coming back!
Thanks for taking the time to write this, something worth thinking about more - I hope other people pick up on this and expand on what you've started. Well done!
Anonymous
“Content is king.”
It sounds good in principle. Produce a truly great piece of content, and you’ll get all the links you could ever hope for.
Maybe it worked too, several years ago. The Web used to be a fairly quiet place compared to what it is now, and it was easier for people to notice great blog posts.
But not anymore.
Now great is no longer good enough. The Web is full of so much remarkable content that bloggers don’t have enough time to read it all, much less link to it.
If you want links now, you need to be more than great. You need to be connected.
http://arthur-internetmarketing-guide.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-content-re...
Anonymous
well put
Anonymous
Makes me think of the famous drawing of Louis XIV.
Here's a link: http://img2.allposters.com/images/MEPOD/10044206.jpg
So at the right, you see the nice clothes (design), in the middle there's the plain ugly content (but it's still the king) and finally at the left, they get together.
Anonymous
Would it be fare to say that if content has no CSS, then the King has no clothes?
Sorry. Had to say it...
designi1
The king goes naked :D ehhee love it! :D
Anonymous
Like Gary, I use the metaphor of building a structure, because I find it parallels closer to the process than the King. (And clients get it) It is better, but still not really accurate. Interactive media is still being figured out, and since we don't have a long history of understanding, like chess or houses, its hard to define. Just agreeing on terms is hard. Pages in a book covered with little symbols were a revolutionary way to communicate. We're still coming to grips with the changes it ushered in.
Everything made by hands, that did not exist already in nature, is designed. Separating things into buckets like 'content' and 'design' are convenient for the general public (and clients). But from a professional perspective, it's all design.
Words are the core of content. And every choice of a word is an act of design. Ask any writer. They are artists with words. There are other kinds of design going on with those words, working together. Information Design, User Experience Design, Graphic Design, Motion Design, Type Design, etc. The idea of design being a final step, to decorate something already built --though persistent, does not really fit. It doesn't capture the whole idea, the integrated, iterative process. It is the well-designed whole that sells.
Each part has its specialists with their area of expertise, and the best result is achieved when each considers the other, and accounts for where things will overlap. An example is how 'web designer' has come to mean expertise with graphics and code. That is not much different from the old-schoolers before computers, who had to learn about stripping negatives and dots per inch. Negatives & code, they are tools of the trade.
When the idea first sparks, during that early vision, choices are being made about this or that, and that is where design starts. Content is King. And content is all of it - words, pictures, code, video, all mashed together in new and different ways, with a history of previously designed stuff behind the scenes that make it a reality. Philosophical, perhaps. But without good philosophy, design sucks.
designi1
dam good :D love your reply!! entirely agree with it :D that´s what i try to express in my prev comment :D thanks
Anonymous
Design matters. However, one can argue that content is king in that it is content that often drives the design. The website for a blues band should be different than one with information about cancer or one intended for helping eight year olds with math. Nor can design often cover a weakness in content.
Anonymous
Very true. I find so many clients spend so much time on great content and SEO, but neglect their web design and wonder why they don't get much traffic.
Anonymous
Awesome analogy! I think you're right about design being the robe and crown for the king of content :)
Design does make a difference, just look at what Apple has done with their brand. The computer is just a computer, until Apple designs one, then it's something different, perhaps something better?
Anonymous
If the design makes part of the content, like in blogzines the reading gets really cool. But knowledge is everithing, if you design is average or stunning it doesn't make sense if the content sucks.
Anonymous
I agree with the article overall. I do believe that content is the main reason for making a site, but design supports the message that the content is portraying. I am a web designer and I am a strong believer in that good content can make a site. But, like you said, design should be the icing on the cake.
Anonymous
Excellent article! I see Design and Content as two sides of the same coin. Neither works without the other and design is more important in those first few seconds whereas content becomes important later in the process.
Connie Malamed
Author of Visual Language for Designers
designi1
Disagree!
Content always be the KING or we arent anymore making design, we´ll be always drawing for beauty (That´s what i understood from the article).. no purpose in design anymore??? Beauty is one diverse / different / subject concept !!! so don´t forget the content and design it as well... the design is helping people in there duties and you´ll browse for a web site to read the content not to admire the beauty of the graphics (ofc we designers "Artists" do that many times - and can be our problem as well).... if you surf on internet the design must help to rich the content that´s the purpose in my opinion.
Anonymous
Mmmm, I like chicken chow mein. I like the article though. It is a mane though.
Anonymous
Content is king, Design is queen. They should work together. Good Content + Good Design = Kingdom Rules. :)
Anonymous
this is a very good article explaining why visual design also is important.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/indefenseofeyecandy/
The mainpoints of this article:
- People are eager to learn how a site works, when it is attractive to the eye.
- When we see something visually attractive, it adds to the credibility of the site.
My opinion is that content and design are at the same importance-level.
Another article about this topic:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/visual-decision-making/
Anonymous
i agree :D while everyone tries to tell everyone to not to judge a book by it's cover, the cruel truth is that everyone does it, even subconsciously. design brings out the content, while a content can be wonderful, design can make it portray even better :D
great article! i'm sure many will benefit from this article!
Anonymous
Speaking as a developer, not a designer, I found this take on it quite interesting. When you look at it what does actually make a 'good' king? Is it the fact that he is dressed up in shiny robes or the fact that he has led his subjects well.
Your argument boils down to saying that design is purely cosmetic and in the long run pretty much inconsequential in the scheme of things. In a way that is right - you look at some of the most popular web pages (Google, Wikipedia, BBC) and they are about content - not about how shiny things are.
I think by saying that design is the shiny robe and crown is doing a great disjustice to the best designers out there. The best designers know how to make something that sticks in the mind, is simple to use, directs the users to the key elements and basically gets the user to do what the designer wants.
To base the quality of the design on how shiny it is is like saying how good a car is based on its paint colour ignoring the design work going into the airflow or interior layout, etc.
To come back to the 'content is king' analogy, if, and I believe that it is, content is king then design must surely be classed as how well he informs his subjects. How he and his aides get the message to the people that he is the best King for them. Shinyness is a part of it - though just a small part.
Anonymous
Thank you, very good Article.
Anonymous
excellent post!
Anonymous
awesome post and good justification, i am also agree with @Mike Smith design is just a fancy thing when it comes to the content
Anonymous
Agreed!!! and I am surprised with the answer "Design is the shiny robe and crown". Content and design go hand in hand. If design is what makes us pleasure to the eyes and induces to read more, content is what that makes to kindle our thoughts.
Anonymous
First, a nit to pick: Did you mean to say "mien" (comportment), as in "the king had a dignified mien", or "mane" (coarse neck hair), as in "the King of the jungle is known by his mane"?
Now, to the meat: In my mind, the content, the arrangement of the content on the page, and the relation of pages within the site, are in the purview of the information architect (IA). The graphic designer's job is to add branding and to aid the IA in creating affordance.
Compare to a residence. The architect designs the house layout and structure, plus the layout of each room, and the mechanics of the house. Only then does the graphic designer's analogue, the interior designer (ID), come into the picture. Room colors, carpets, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, etc. are the ID's purview. The ID makes the house comfortable, more æsthetically pleasing, but even if nothing but generic white, beige, and chrome were used, (consider the page with styles turned off) it would be just as functional. The ID makes the house more salable, but has only a small effect on the house's intrinsic value.
This is not meant to denigrate the graphic designer's role. It is important to realize that his job is to provide added value, but without the IA's content and structure design, the graphics mean zip. The reverse is not true.
I appreciate your metaphors, but the lion's mane, or frightening mien, have little to do with the dangers involved in teasing the king. Those teeth are part of the structure, not its appearance.
cheers,
gary
Anonymous
Content is the idea. Design is all about selling that idea.
People who say 'content is king' are often saying it from platforms that are so well designed they don't even notice the design that has gone into that platform. Some of the best designs in the world are so good, they never get noticed - they just blend seamlessly into our lives.
In the digital realm, there's WordPress, for example. Beyond the obvious themes, there has been a ton of design work done there that has allowed it to become so intuitive and easy to use that anyone can easily put up a good-looking blog with hardly any effort and proudly state 'content is king'.
Nice post.
Anonymous
I totally agree with you. Content is, indeed, very important but, in the same time, we never seem to forget a great design. Btw, very interesting post.
CreativityDen
Nice article some strange examples but good nonetheless :)
I believe design is just as important as content. If you have awesome content displayed in a cluttered and hard to read layout then people won't even bother to read it. In fact, for me, the design is usually one of the reasons to why I revisit websites.
Anonymous
I'd like to think that if content is King, then design is it's Queen.
Think about it - questions will always be asked of a King who couldn't bag himself a beautiful Queen.
Anyone who has watched 'The Tudors' will catch this drift.
Anonymous
I was actually thinking of the same thing...you also watch 'The Tudors' nice series.
Another great article...and btw, nice title :D
Anonymous
I couldn't agree more!
jadgraphics
Treat your (king) content like the king in a chess game
So true, and probably the best analogy. As a chess player myself, I realize that it is very important to surround your king with good pieces. The same thing totally applies with your content. Good content pretty much doesn't do much without good design. Should it be that way? No, but that's just the way we work. If a website has really good content but an ugly design, most of the time, we don't even bother to read it.
Thank you for this excellent post. BUMPED!
Anonymous
Content is the bling that makes the king shine. If the king was ugly and hard to understand, his followers may not be as receptive to what he has to say.
Anonymous
"People don't follow that rule - ever."
It's true. I surf the web, much how I used to "channel surf." If i search something and click on the first Google result and it LOOKS chinsy, i have my mouse poised on that back button to find something that looks reputable!
Anonymous
If content is king then design is a jester.
Think about that one for a second. What is the purpose of the jester in relation to the king? To keep him entertained, to keep him focused, to keep him from getting really mad and killing someone, especially the jester.
Best of all, of everyone in the court the jester both is and isn't defined by the will of the king. Should the jester go too far the king could bring his wrath down upon him but at the same time the king is willing to give the jester more leeway in which to do his flamboyant antics in the hope that he will be entertained.
Anonymous
Wow well said! We are truly the jesters here!
Anonymous
Great posting! I especially the analogy of design as the robe and crown--the visual aspects that establish the authority and validity of the king/content.
Anonymous
I think this is a great question to have thrown out. Visual design goes much further than just ornamentation. If you turn the analogy on it's side a little, you could say that content is what the king says, and design is how the king says it. Looking at it through that lens, you could make a case that "It's 10% what you say, and 90% how you say it." In that model, design becomes the most impactful aspect.
I think content has to be good to a certain level of appropriateness - like players in the NBA generally have to be a certain height to be competitive (see Malcom Gladwell's Outliers). Great content will get you to the table, but it's, then, only a part of a much larger equation.
Anonymous
You have sumup superbly!
Anonymous
"content is what the king says and design is how the king says it"
Fantastic addition to the article!
john
I like your take on it. "It's 10% what you say, and 90% how you say it." Design is a great way to convey meaning and message through subtle visual hints. Another great way to look at the "What is design?" question.
smashingshare
Prepared very nicely. Very helpful article. Thanks Mike
T-Law
Awesome article Mike. I think that nowadays design is more important than content, because everyday are created tons of new blogs and if you're one of them you must have original design to attract readers and stand out of crowd. If in the past content was more important than design, now I think they're equal.
Clippingimages
Definitely great design is the first and last impression for standard content. First attraction depend on design. Very inspiring article. Thanks for sharing this nice post. :)
Anonymous
I'm a web copy writer and I'm loving your phrase "design is the shiny robe and crown". I always tell clients that they must have a great design that reflects their image. No matter how good the copy is, bounce rate always seems to be higher if the design is flat and uninteresting. I hope my web copy is always well accessorised!
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