Content-First Design

How often have you seen a proposed web design that looks nice, but is filled with dummy Lorem Ipsum text? You know it looks nice, but even if you know the purpose of the site, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to see how the site will work for its intended users.

Too many projects are designed like this, and too many fail to serve their purpose. People don't come to a website to look at a pretty web design; they come to solve a problem, buy a product, or complete a transaction.

Content-first design is a process by which research, exploration, and evaluation of content requirements and user needs inform the structure, layout, flow, and visuals for a digital product. It centers design on what end users need and how the site can fulfill that need.

Content-First Design: Moving Content Forward, by Sarah Johnson, gives you a practical approach to building a customer experience that aligns with the needs of both customers and internal stakeholders. It shows you how to set realistic, yet ambitious, goals and how to plan, prototype, test, and iterate in a content-first way.

The book also contains a detailed case study, co-authored by Shannon Geis, that follows the development of a banking application using content-first design.

Whether you're a solo content designer supporting multiple products, a product manager trying to embed content thinking into your process, or part of a mature content team looking to scale your impact, this book offers clear, actionable guidance that will get you there.