- I Can't Make a Website That Looks That Good!
- Content Before Design
- Overall Design
- Colors
- Fonts
- Images
- Cascading Style Sheets
Content Before Design
If there is one core principle that guides all my website design, it’s content before design. This means collecting the content for your website and then letting that guide and inform your design. For example, if you are building a website for your bowling team, consider the content first. Your team wants to have member profiles, a schedule, results from past matches, and the team logo. Let those things guide your design of the website.
Websites that put design before content usually have design elements that feel wrong for the content. For example, you might really love the color and flavor of chili peppers, but they are not the design element to base your local zoo’s website on. On the other hand, the bowling site could use pins, bowling balls, or lanes in interesting ways that tie the design to the content (see Figure 4.2).
Figure 4.2. Bowl.com is an example of using content to drive design.