A common practice of agencies is to first develop the website, get the layout approved from the client (with dummy content incorporated in it), and then assign the website to the content team. The copywriters are then expected to decipher the design's intent and fill the sections with appropriate selling or branding content.
Content or layout first is a debate of egg and chicken. The two elements co-exist and compliment in a manner that which one comes first raises questions. Technically there are two approaches to website wireframes, among which one focuses on the web copy first and the other focuses on the structure first. The names as follows:
Conversion Design
Structure Design
The real question we should be asking is which one Should come first; the design or the content. Let's first discuss the two approaches to creating a website wireframe.
Conversion Design:
Conversion design simply refers to strategizing the content first before creating the mock of the website. The content strategy provides a guided trail to the designer and understands the dynamics of the CTA or the end goal.
Web copy is the conversation between the business and customer so, it is not surprising when some creative branding agencies want to focus on the copy first creating a story for the audience. Strategizing the content means you create a roadmap with a combination of interactive words/ text, headlines, audio, video and graphics interchange format (GIF).
The benefit of strategizing the content first is that the service/ product layout would be according to the present content. Since these sections should be more detailed and educational, only a writer can guide through with well-structured headings and pointers with a touch of visual content.
Branding companies use the conversion design approach to set the company tone for the graphics and the overall theme (color pallet and layout) of the website.
Structure Design:
Informative and convincing content is important but the design shouldn't be underestimated. For instance, design is the center of focus when creating the landing page and the content is then fitted according to design encouraging the call to action. On the same side, the homepage is also focused more on the design, concluding the whole business as compared to the service/ product pages.
The benefit of the structured design approach is that it helps make the content effortless to read and scan with a template created on the UI/UX principles. The structured approach helps the copywriter pitch the content perfectly, concentrating on visibility. With the layout designed, they can set the tone as to what can be the hook for readers and where they need to encourage an action. The structured approach is most common among the agencies because the copywriters are great at fitting the content within constraints.
What happens when you design the layout first without the collaboration of the writer?
Most of the agencies don't have the collaboration between the designers and the writers as they work in two entirely different departments. The content team mainly belongs to the SEO and social media marketing department. The lack of collaboration between the two creatives influences the overall UI/ EX of the website. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal is customer and consumer satisfaction. Some of the downsides of none collaborative website content and design include:
Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate:
We know that a poor website design increases the bounce rate and the SEO experts in Dubai intensively frown upon unresponsive websites. Even Google won't let you rank with websites that are inconsiderate of the SEO and UX/UI principles.
It is true that people are attracted towards a good, smooth, and interactive design to see. However, without the right information, the visitor would never convert into consumers. Without an understanding of the content, the design lacks context and fails to encourage the conversion rate.
If the content team doesn't understand the design for CTA or the design team doesn't understand the content for the layout, then the bounce rate would increase and the conversion rate would decrease. It is crucial for the copywriter and the designer to collaborate and understand business needs from each perspective.
Negative and Empty Placeholders:
Not long ago, there was an emerging trend of implying the white negative space in the website design. The negative space in the design promotes reading clarity and also enhances the CTA as well as the navigation and other features you wanted attention too.
However, empty placeholders leave the white space but they are not beneficial. empty placeholders create despair in the content and the design. it makes the website look incomplete and becomes an obstacle in the navigation as well. This usually happens when the copywriter is unaware of the design or the designer is unaware of the already completed copy. It may sound unrealistic to you but it's a common practice since the teams are under different divisions. The work is only analyzed once it comes for implementation or rectification.
For example, a template may contain placeholders that are not necessary for every page or doesn't make sense for the client. As per the design, the copywriter fills the empty places with irrelevant content and fake information.
Visual Ugly Glitches:
As discussed above content strategizing includes text, gifs, videos as well as images. If the content team has created a strategy without collaboration with the designing team, it would create visual glitches, such as images breaking out of the frame, or too small for the space and is pixelating in order to expand as per the frame.
One of the most common issues that occur is that the content is too extensive or too short for the allocated space.
The allocation leads to multiple revisions from both sides, consuming more than necessary time.
So, circling back to the question: what comes first, content or the layout? The simple answer is that the implication of the conversion approach and the structural approach is situational and based on the business goals and objectives. On other days, collaboration comes first.
