Ever since iOS 5 introduced the reader function into safari, more and more often I’ve found myself using it more and more. When a site loads, instead of tapping and zooming around the adverts and other distractions, a quick tap on the reader button and I get my content, with no distractions.
When I visit a site on my phone, quite often it’s through an app such as Flipboard or Readability which lets me read the article I want and doesn’t distract me with other unnecessary elements which take my focus away from the content. And regardless of device, I visit websites to read the content and more and more the thought of tapping and zooming around puts me off to the point where I will use Reader or a read it later app.
This is one of the reasons why I am a fan of a content first approach to design where the sites content is put first, and the site fleshed out from there where the focus is placed on the content, and anything added is to the benefit of the site, and not purely decorative or marketing driven. Starting this way ensures that every design decision is how it will affect the content and cuts down the number of unnecessary distractions. We’re getting pretty good at filtering out all the marketing and other information we’re not interested in as we get it from tv, radio, billboards etc and now websites. We users much prefer our content first please.
The majority of websites have some way for clients to manage their content, either every aspect of the site or certain parts of it, and too often this fact is almost forgotten and it has a detrimental effect on the site overall.
How many times are sites built and then a cms hastily handed over to the client laden with options allowing them to change a number of styles including font-sizes, line-heights, colors etc after these have all been carefully considered and crafted in the CSS already?
I’ve heard the words “they’ve ruined it” way too many times after a client has been given access and a large part of the blame for that is down to us as developers and project managers for not providing adequate information and systems in place. Sites designed way before seeing any content or content samples, or tinymce packed with every option under the sun allowing for all sorts of styles to be applied inline overwriting our hard work. We need to take ownership of our sites and restrict the options available to website owners as well as providing adequate training to clients so that they get the best use out of the site. It’s not just their site that will suffer, our businesses suffer as the wee link at the bottom of the page tells every visitor who built it and poorly presented information reflects on us as well as the client.
Next time a client “ruins” a site through the CMS, really question if it’s them who’ve failed or us for not providing an adequate service.
Things have been pretty quiet here recently, though by contrast 2011 was an eventful year both personally and professionally. During the course of the year I completed many interesting projects at work, had my first speaking engagement at Dundee Web Standards, moved house and got engaged to a beautiful girl. An eventful year I’m sure you’ll agree!
The highlight professionally was when I agreed to do a short talk about Responsive Web Design at Dundee Web Standards in August, and I enjoyed doing it and will maybe do more speaking in the future. I’ll admit to being a bit nervous before grabbing the mic, but once I got started it seemed to go pretty well. Responsive design is a topic I’m highly interested and a strong supporter of so I had plenty to say on the topic.
Just before the talk I re-designed this site slightly both in terms of look and also converted it to a responsive layout, although I’ll admit to neglecting it a bit of late. I added a Labs section with great intentions of using it to host experiments and little snippets I’ve worked on but this year I intend to get this up and running properly. I also intend to start writing more, as the last post was in February and is the longest I’ve gone without adding new content. There are several drafts waiting to be finished that I can complete and push to the site.
All in all 2012 will be a busy year and I personally can’t wait to see what is in store after a fantastic 2011.
The highlight undoubtedly was getting engaged and plans are well underway for our wedding next January – complete with it’s own website which I am currently working on and will announce the details of in due course.
