Great value or attention is often placed on the flash or the look and presentation of the media that delivers information but how much attention is given to “designing the content?” You may be asking? Designing content? You don’t “design content” content is just content! I disagree. If anything the design of the content is in my personal opinion the most crucial aspect. A web site or brochure may look like the most fantastic work of art but if it contains nothing except “fluff” or maybe even worse, words or images that are overly complicated the point of the whole message will be lost.

In college my major was Mass Communication and my minor was  Creative Writing. It’s interesting that only now am I starting to use a discipline I enjoyed but sadly at the time considered useless, that discipline? Poetry. Yes Poetry. I’m not talk about alternating verses with a rhyme but rather concise blocks of text so vivid that they can create a solid image and evoke strong emotions in the mind.

While writing for the web and small print jobs like business cards and brochures is not exactly poetry, I  find myself considering the value of each word I use so I can get the most “bang for the buck”. Business blogging (what I am doing write now) has more than anything, caused me to consider what words I include and refrain from posting in my articles. Why is this important? Search Engine Optimization. Let me make it clear however I don’t believe in tricking the system. Their is no value in that but if something is appropriate then is worth considering what to use. For example if I am trying to target my local town or area I might want to keep in mind to mention Greenville,SC or Upstate,SC in the text of article if  appropriate.

I mentioned in a previous article how important it was to give images descriptive names. This also is part of the design of content but the image itself is important to the design of content. Is it in focus? If on a web page does it load quickly but most important, does it “tell a story?”

What makes content compelling? Content must be easy to read, quick to view but at the same time it should inspire, motivate, educate or yes, even entertain. How it is presented helps. Means of presentation to consider are;

• Lists
• Text formating like bold, italic or color text
  • indenting and even the consideration of
• White Space

All of this may seem like a rehash of a language arts class in school (I almost said English and quickly realized I was writing for a world wide audience) but in the world of technology and face paced business meetings the art of language… the design of content can often be over looked.  What else do you consider as the “design of content?”

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 10:09 pm and is filed under Compelling Content, Greenville,SC, Print, Upstate,SC, blogging, web design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.