Design from the Content Out

"Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration." - Jeffrey Zeldman

We've all heard that content is king, yet when it comes to designing web experiences we're still stuck with lorem ipsum and placeholder images, as though the real content didn't matter.

We're still designing web experiences from the top down, starting with the desktop view of the homepage, even though they're more likely to be experienced from the bottom up - starting with a content detail page on a mobile device.

Designing from the content out means starting with atomic elements of content, and building a system of components and layouts based on the real structure of content.

Transcript

1. John Eckman | @jeckman | #NERDSummit Design From the Content Out John Eckman @jeckman Sept. 12th, 2015 #nerds15 http://www.queensmuseum.org/2013/10/panorama-of-the-city-of-new-york
2. http://i.imgur.com/JAgd0.jpg
3. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Eug%C3%A8ne_Haussmann
4. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 http://www.citi.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/paris_aerial_view.jpg
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_de_l%27Op%C3%A9ra#/media/File:Camille_Pissarro_- _Avenue_de_l%27Opera_-_Mus%C3%A9e_des_Beaux-Arts_Reims.jpg
6. John Eckman | @jeckman | #NERDSummit http://mosesjacobsopera.com/
7. John Eckman | @jeckman | #NERDSummit http://mosesjacobsopera.com/
8. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/ Robert_Moses_with_Battery_Bridge_model.jpg
9. “There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder . . . the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.”
10. “Design is the conscious attempt to impose a meaningful order”
11. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 When it comes to Web Design, we’re doing it wrong.
12. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 We’ve been doing it wrong for some time
13. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 We’ve been doing it wrong for some a very long time
14. John Eckman | @jeckman | #NERDSummit – John Allsop “Now is the time for the medium of the web to outgrow its origins in the printed page. Not to abandon so much wisdom and experience, but to also chart its own course, where appropriate. The web’s greatest strength, I believe, is often seen as a limitation, as a defect. It is the nature of the web to be flexible, and it should be our role as designers and developers to embrace this flexibility . . .” https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Huxisanxiaotu.jpg http://alistapart.com/article/dao
15. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Responsive Design is part of the answer http://responsivewebdesign.com/about/
16. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Content Strategy is part of the answer http://responsivewebdesign.com/about/
17. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Put them together, and design from the content out
18. #1: Design with Real Content #1: Design with Real Content #3: Design Systems, Not Pages #2: Design from the Bottom Up
19. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 #1: Design with Real Content
20. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15
21. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15
22. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 • Lorem Ipsum is a placeholder - don’t rely on it • Real content has unpredictable structure - length, variability, frequency - the “warp and weft” of real human messiness • Real content has different image tonality, frequency • Designing with placeholder content is like cooking with fake ingredients. Lorem Ipsum is synthetic content
23. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15
24. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 “But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"
25. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 “But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure.
26. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 What if your client doesn’t yet have content?
29. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Proto-Content • Use the site’s current content • Write your own • Use text from competitors’ websites • Use ‘real’ content from another context (wikipedia) http://wordpress.tv/2015/05/11/travis-totz-design-better-websites-with-content-first/
30. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 #1A: Design with Real Content (Including Ads!)
31. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15
32. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 #2: Design from the Bottom Up
33. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Home Cat C Cat B Cat D Cat A Cat E
34. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Home Cat C Cat B Cat D Cat A Cat E
35. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 #3: Design Systems, Not Pages
36. 1. Separation - avoid crowding neighbors (short range repulsion) 2. Alignment - steer towards average heading of neighbors 3. Cohesion - steer towards average position of neighbors (long range attraction)
37. 1. Separation - avoid crowding neighbors (short range repulsion) 2. Alignment - steer towards average heading of neighbors 3. Cohesion - steer towards average position of neighbors (long range attraction)
38. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15
43. Pages are specific instances of templates that replace placeholder content with real representative content. . . . pages are essential for testing the effectiveness of the underlying design system. It is at the page stage that we’re able to take a look at how all those patterns hold up when real content is applied to the design system.
44. http://www.public-domain-image.com/free-images/nature-landscapes/forest/view-at-green- forest-from-the-observation-tower/ We need to see the forest
45. http://www.public-domain-image.com/free-images/nature-landscapes/forest/hardwood-trees-in-forest.jpg . . . and the trees
46. “This order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance . . . an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole” - Jane Jacobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_scramble
47. John Eckman | @jeckman | #NERDSummit –John Allsopp “The journey begins by letting go of control, and becoming flexible.”
48. #1: Design with Real Content #1: Design with Real Content #3: Design Systems, Not Pages #2: Design from the Bottom Up
49. john@10up.com @jeckman johneckman.com openparenthesis.org goatless.org
50. John Eckman | @jeckman | #nerds15 Resources • Mark Boulton - A Richer Canvas (March 2011). http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/a-richer- canvas, Structure First, Content Always (Feb 2012) - http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/ structure-first-content-always • Stephen Hay - Responsive Design Workflow. https://vimeo.com/47171001 (from BDConf, April 2012) • Dave Rupert - Responsive Deliverables http://daverupert.com/2013/04/responsive- deliverables/ • Chris Coyier - Design Systems: Building for the Future. https://css-tricks.com/design-systems- building-future/ • Dave Olsen - The Death of Lorem Ipsum. Confab Higher Ed 2014. http://www.slideshare.net/ dmolsenwvu/the-death-of-lorem-ipsum-pixel-perfect-content • Travis Totz - Design Better Websites with Content First. http://wordpress.tv/2015/05/11/travis- totz-design-better-websites-with-content-first/ • Brad Frost, Atomic Design. http://atomicdesign.bradfrost.com/