The Merging of Design and Content

I've been working on website proposals for several days now and have come to a conclusion. Many people think that design and content are two seperate things and that comes to light on their webpages.

Let me explain.

I believe for a website to properly function, content and design have to work together, not fight against each other. They are the ying and yang, two sizes of a whole and yet I see so many websites where the content appears secondary. It always baffles me during a redesign process when people forget about the content.

How does this appear on a website?

One of the ways it does is through lack of white space. When the design starts to crowd into the content, then there is a problem. There should be enough room for the design AND the content.

Another way is by overdesign. Overdesign is when you have a really great design of a site that overshadows the content. Examples of this include excessive use of flash and more.

Not that content is blame-free either. When you have so much content that it's pushing the design to the edges, then you have a problem. You need to ensure that content and design work together to make the website perfect.

It's definitely easier said then done but it's possible!