Slides from Rachel McCollin's talk at WordCamp Birmingham

1. Content is King
Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
rachelmccollin.com

2. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Content is King?
Recent trends
Designing for content

3. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
When you design a website, are you
aiming for…

4. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
this?

5. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
this?

6. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
maybe this?

7. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Or are you aiming for…

8. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
this?

9. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
this?

10. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
or this?

11. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Which are the most successful?

12. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
How has Content vs Design evolved?
Change in browsing habits
Devices

13. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Ask yourself:
What do people come to my site to do?
What do I want them to do?
What content will help the site meet these objectives?
How can the User Interface (UI) support the content?
How will the design support the content and UI?
How will I ensure accessibility and cross-device compatibility?
What purpose will my visuals serve?

14. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Objectives Come First
Know what your site needs to achieve:
for you
for your client
for the user

15. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Plan Content Before Design
Elements:
text
visuals (including video, sliders etc as well as still images)
interactions
Now and for the future

16. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Readability Without CSS

17. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
The UI to Make Your Content Work
Interactions
Readability
Clickability
Accessibility
Text
Speed

18. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Screen Size (don’t rely on it)

19. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Accessibility and SEO
Screen readers
Google's spiders
Happy readers = good SEO

20. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
Visuals Should Do A Job
"Users pay close attention to
photos and other images that
contain relevant information but
ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz
up" Web pages."
Jakob Nielsen
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/p
hotos-as-web-content/

21. Rachel McCollin
@rachelmccollin
To Summarise:
Chuck out the chintz!
Think Objectives -> Content -> UI -> Design