So, with that in mind I went about re-designing this site with a content-first approach. Typically, when I’m designing something I think about how it will look. I think in terms of colours, layout, shape, textures, sizes. I’m a lines, licks and looks sort of person. I try to see the whole picture before I’ve even started, I have a preconceived notion of where everything is heading and more often than not this is where it will go. Something had to give, something needed to change… my whole process needed to change.
Process
This site design started as a simple, random article without any styling. Start Writing in your e-mail client and you’ll know what I mean. Just words, spaces and line breaks. Then I took each individual element of that article and decided how best to present it. I was forced to prioritise the information, to think long and hard about the place of each element within an article.
“Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.” - David Hockney
I’ve stopped trying to just make content pretty and instead focused on making content relevant. Why is this here? What is it trying to express? How can I best express it through design? This is basic stuff, this is discernment, analysis and evaluation, this is critical thinking! Nothing new to a good, classically trained designer but to be honest it was something that I had never really practiced before. I had always designed on intuition but I learned that intuition has limits.
Goals
To design critically you need to have clearly defined goals, These were mine:
- Try to ignore current trends, think timeless design.
- Clearly display and separate content elements in a way that is natural and relevant.
- Forget about colour.
Ignoring trends
Big glossy buttons, rounded corners, wet floors, extreme gradients, excessive drop shadows. The web 2.0 saturation point has well and truly hit us. I didn’t particularly like any of those design effects anyway. I wanted subtlety, minimalism, bauhaus style lines, these are design elements that look good and have always looked good, as it happens this fits perfectly with a content-first approach.
“The idea of trying to create things that last – forever knowledge – has guided my work for a long time now.” - Edward Tufte
Clearly separating content elements
The web seems a bit linear doesn’t it? Particularly, blog posts! I have read many a great blog post without so much as an italicised word. I hear you saying ‘but it’s all about content and the message’, well, yes you’re correct. The goal surely is to communicate a message, it stands to reason that a well defined structure and hierarchy will not only make the content easier to read but also make the message clearer. This was a hugely important goal for me.
Forget colour
I like colour :-) and it will make it’s way back into this site in time. Let me get the basics right first.
More to come
The rest of the site is ready to go but only the journal is being let out of the box for the time being.
There is a portfolio and a whole lot more still to come, I’m not actively looking for any work at the moment so I’m going to hold off releasing them. I want to get the journal out the door, build up some decent content and then concentrate on the other elements of the site.
I’d love to make a declaration of regular and quality content over the next few months but I don’t know if it’s going to happen. At least I’ve got a place where I can clearly and proudly express any thoughts that I may have.
That’s enough rambling for now!
