It seems that a lot is being said recently about separating content from design, an issue which is by no means a new one (see this article from A List Apart in 2004). This time around, it seems like the target audience is those of us that never really got it in the first place for whatever reason. It’s got a new twist though.
This is where I am. I have seen a ton of great sites lately, at least visually. I don’t think I am that hard to impress if we’re being honest. But where I see a lot of sites falling short is in great content. It’s not that the content is so bad, but it’s just organized so poorly. This is where the new focus comes in. It’s now on highlighting great content through your design. But the distinction is that the content comes first! I know I’m very guilty of designing first, and then trying to fit everything into the design I have. Of course things aren’t going to work as well as they should. The content was an afterthought. Even if it was good content, it was shoved into a place that it probably shouldn’t have been.
So what do we do? First, we have to realize the type of content we are going to have. Then, we have to look at that content, recognize what the USER is going to want to read, and then design something around that. The idea of progressive enhancement here is crucial. A site must be able to be stripped down to its content and still be valuable. If it is, then we can rebuild the site around that value.
Another key concept is labeling our CSS tags with tags that describe what the content IS or does, and not where it goes, or how it looks, because looks or location may change, but the essence of the content will not. For example, labeling a div “leftColumn” sounds great until you decide to change that column to the right. Try naming it somehting like “navigation” instead. That way, no matter where you put it, your structure will still make sense. Plus, everybody can see that it is on the left, that doesn’t help define your content at all.
So as we continue to progress, and new technologies continue to emerge, just remember to keep your content as top notch as possible, to keep it organized properly, and only THEN to design how your user should interact with the content.