Literacy Leads To Better Web Design

Designers tend to see everything in terms of graphic or visual elements. Text becomes a shape, or block, rather than collections of individual words with meaning. This is not helped by the fact that, during a web development project, content creation is often left until last, with designers accustomed to fitting their pages around columns of dummy text.

It is better if content is there from the beginning, to be read by the designer before work begins. Then visual aspects of a page can be fitted thoughtfully around the sense and tone of the words. Appropriate colours and images may be used to enhance text. Armed with understanding, the designer can compose a page that breaks large columns into more readable sections and brings important phrases to attention. The result is a more coherent and powerful website, with style and content working together harmoniously.

Where the designer has manipulated empty blocks in place of actual content it is a common side-effect that the words in the final version are difficult to read. The background may be too dark, the font too pale, or the combination of colours used might dazzle the reader's eyes. This can be avoided if content is placed at the forefront of a project to remind the designer that it is more than just a shape on the page. The words have something important to say that, when combined with sympathetic design, could have the ability to move the reader. At Click Consult, we integrate content and web design to produce successful websites for an internet marketing campaign.