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Content-Driven Design – Let’s Throw out Tradition

First off, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to all the emails and Twitter messages I’ve received over the impending redesign of Tripping Words; it is going slowly but steadily. The new website design will pay closer heed (albeit with a hint of measured defiance!) to proven aesthetic principles and more importantly it will feature a more robust content-driven interface. 

With that in mind, today’s article will address my own personal opinions (and gripes) on what the term “content-driven” means to designers/bloggers within the design fraternity. This piece will also serve as an “advanced-justification” to certain trends and stylistic treatments I’ve adopted for the new design.

The Boring Definition – Bla…Bla…Bla

In the most traditional usage of the word, content-driven websites are ultimately more focused in how primary content is presented and delivered to an online audience. Factors pertaining to web-usability and readability emerge at the fore-front when one discusses issues of content. Good web copy and content need to be supported by a sound foundational structure – design. While it is true that content informs design, design should also aid in nurturing the quality of content and emphasize why the stuff you write on your website is worth reading. 

I will be first to admit that the practice of designing for content was something which I (rather ignorantly) glossed over when conceptualizing the original design of Tripping Words. If the pull-factor of your website lies in your content, then it is entirely necessary to adopt a design structure that breathes life into the words you so painstakingly churn out on a regular basis. But is our understanding of content-driven web pages correctly conceived? I think not.   

Why Reader Comments Should Never be Displayed at the Bottom of Your Post

Why do design bloggers/designers (including myself) remain adamant on having reader-comments posted at the bottom of each blog post? Logically speaking, it does makes sense to have the comments displayed after each post, because it ensures that the reader is able to fully decipher the content before proceeding to comment (duh!). There is however a serious flaw in the presentational philosophy of comments.

Reader comments are perhaps the most valuable aspect of a content-driven website. It is a reflection of how discursively engaged your readers are with the content at hand. I do believe that reader comments should be realigned to meet centrally with the main featured article. This means that readers will be able to read the article and also enjoy the comments simultaneously. Web-usability evangelists will probably beat me up for saying this, but I’ve started to get used to these verbal barrages.

While some might feel that a central display for both comments and articles together will be overtly overwhelming for readers, I feel it encourages more discussion. The truth is, many readers often skim over an article but pay more attention to the comments generated from it because they are shorter and generally more succinct and they also provide an overview of what the article is really about. It is my (although empirically unsupported) belief that most online readers rarely read an entire article. It would not surprise me if most of the visitors here on Tripping Words, pay attention to the sub-headings only. That is the general browsing behaviour of an online audience – fleeting and distracted. This is not a good reader/bad reader argument; it is simply an established fact.

Feed the Distraction, Don’t fight it

By displaying reader comments in a more prominent place that is visible together with the main article, we are effectively feeding this distraction, and this, as silly as it sounds, is a good thing. Readers are then pronged from their taciturn zones and encouraged to react and follow the stream of conversation. While an information-overload can present an obvious headache, there is an inner part in all of us that screams for visual/intellectual stimulation; we want our eyes to be kept busy and entertained. Reams of text from a single article often induce a kind of drowsiness which in turn translates to a reader clicking away onto another page. If the front landing page of your website is also the top exit page, then this is probably the case. 

My rule for content-driven design is to always sustain the reader’s attention for as long as possible, and by keeping comments and articles adjoined positionally (with proper white spacing etc), we might just get readers playing to our tune. The principle may seem contradictory at first but by increasing reader “distraction” we might get the right kind of attention; the kind of attention that is directed to the conversational flow of an article/post, rather than a fleeting/fragmented attention to “content-peripherals” such as the sub-headings of a particular article. 

Readers Write the Content

Readers are more important than we think. They effectively write the content of article-driven websites, through their comments and various types of responses. Reader comments often shape our perception on the quality of content that is presented. While this is perhaps an unfair assertion to make, it is a regrettably honest one. If an article receives quality comments (either in terms of quantity or quality), it would automatically be endorsed as a website’s most prized asset.

Show Readers the Respect they Deserve

Since readers are also authors, show them the respect they deserve. It would be great if reader comments themselves could be presented in a fashion that is similar to the main article. Having a simple “By: Author-Name” bar line and allowing headings for comments would effectively place a higher level of importance on reader comments, while at the same time encouraging more readers to take the plunge into adding their own response to an already elegantly presented pool of buzzing comments.

My Question to You: 

Are you ready to break with tradition and explore fresher alternatives to how content is presented online?

Side Note: The New Design

Well, here is a preview (it hardly qualifies as a “preview” but it shows what I am working on!) of the new design direction of Tripping Words. I’ve practiced some of the pointers mentioned above and also taken a keen interest in visual detail. A full screenshot of the whole design will be up in due course.

On a related note, I can also assure you that I’ve moved away from my radical experiments with line-height ratios and adopted a more reasonable font-display measurement that should render decently in all good browsers/resolutions. I understand the discomfort perpetuated for some readers who dislike larger display fonts etc. But nevertheless, in the name of character and tradition (of Tripping Words), line-heights/fonts in this current iteration will not be adjusted until the new design is up.

Would love to hear your responses!

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