Content Without Design is Dumb
Content is King.
You’ve probably heard this statement before. If not, Wikipedia (yes, Wikipedia) illustrates the idea of “Content is King” as:
“…without original and desirable content…any media venture is likely to fail through lack of appealing content, regardless of other design factors.”
You can have the best-designed, coolest, most functional website around, but without good content, your website (or eBook, course, podcast, video production, etc.) is pretty much useless.
However, please don’t misunderstand the idea here. Design, or presentation is still absolutely necessary.
Design without content is useless, but content without design is dumb.
In other words: design matters.
Design Matters
Perry Belcher is an internet marketing guru. He even has an online button named after himself – The Belcher Button, which I’ve talked about before here on the blog. I’ve watched him, listened to his courses and have implemented a lot of his novel ideas into my own businesses.
There is one thing, however, that he always says in the beginning of many of his audio courses that I always disagree with. He always apologizes for the low quality recordings, and that it really doesn’t matter because it’s the content that counts.
Maybe the poor sound quality doesn’t matter to the people who have already paid for his courses to listen to his content, but in our world (you and me), the quality of our presentation is HUGE. The quality and design of how we present our content can mean the difference between:
- A new visitor staying or bouncing.
- A regular visitor reader getting excited or bored.
- A potential customer buying from you, or instead buying from your competitor.
- An existing customer being satisfied, or asking for their money back.
You can have the best content in the world, but without good design or an interesting presentation, your content will generally make little to no impact.
First Impressions
Design and presentation is vital for first impressions. Online, first impressions mean a lot more than you think.
The average person spends about 7 seconds on a single website, which means you have about 7 seconds to make a good first impression on your new visitors, or else they’re going to leave. If you’re got loads of great content, people won’t find it unless you give them a reason to stay.
For Your Website…
This means having a strong visual impact right from the pageload, especially when it comes to what your website is about and exactly what it can do for your visitors. Can you tell exactly what your site is about just from looking at the home page?
This means including something that makes you stand out from the other 200+ websites they visited that day. Why do things the same, when there are an unlimited number of things you can do to be different?
This means not including anything that would turn your new visitors off. What turns you off from websites? Do you do that on your own site?
For eBooks…
This means an awesome, non-generic looking cover.
This means a layout that’s inviting and unlike something like an essay or a report which would turn people off.
For Audio and Visual Media…
This means a strong intro (song or spoken introduction).
This means getting people excited about the show or broadcast by giving them ideas on what to look forward to.
This means high-quality audio recordings or video presentations.
The Higher the Quality, The Better
Any chance you have to make things look or sound better, you should.
A couple of months ago, I was speaking to Cliff from Podcast Answer Man, about some new podcasting equipment that I will be getting very very soon (for the SPI podcast, yay!). Anyways, he was telling me about just how important sound quality is in the podcasting arena. He even told me that The Grammar Girl, who hosts a very successful podcast on iTunes, won’t even give an audio file a 10 second listen if the sound quality is bad, no matter what it is.
I like to think of it like this: you put in the hard work to create the content that you’re about to present, so you’ll want to give it the best chance to succeed, right?
Learning Good Design
Design is a TOUGH thing to learn, and even presentation too. Luckily, I went to school for architecture, which is all about both design and presentation.
That being said, as tough as architecture may sound, it’s really all about common sense, and putting yourself in the shoes of those who you want to read, subscribe, or buy from you. And when common sense isn’t so clear, then it becomes all about trial and error – testing, and honing down on exactly what does work for you.
That’s why since the beginning of this blog, I’ve had 5 redesigns, although I’ve only publicly announced the last two. That’s why I’m still constantly learning, testing and tweaking to make sure that I give my content the best chance of getting noticed. So far, it seems to be working.
If Content is King, then Design is his beautiful Queen that’s there to make him look better.
Posted on : March 29th, 2010
Related posts:
- It’s Dumb Not To Dumb It Down
- Passive Income as a Lifestyle Design Aid
- The Simplest Way to Create Unique Content
- Using Content Sites to Build Residual Income
- Lack of Content is a Lazy Excuse
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56 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
Good stuff. Do you design your own blog? I’d also like to add that if you don’t know what you’re doing, hire a webdesigner. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get an awesome looking design.
I agree that low-quality design, quality and everything else severely lowers the value of any product, podcast or course in my eyes. Let’s keep it awesome people!
Thanks Henri. In fact, I do design my own blogs – usually on a piece of paper or in photoshop, and I hand the design off to a web designer to implement it. Of course, there are plenty of designers/web developers out there who can help you create a great design, and like you said you don’t have to spend a fortune to find them.
I didn’t know that you designed your own blog, Pat. I thought that you handed it off to the designers you always mention. Good for you!
As I was reading the article, I kept thinking about how clear your typeface/font is and how easy it makes to read your articles. Plus, you don’t have any typos or grammar mistakes that stood out. All of that, including the design makes the decision to stay on your site and actually read your articles that much easier. The use of the pictures and the different font colours also make your design visually appealing.
Btw, I know that I razzed you before on the “Did You Know” feature, but that its actually one of the first things I read when I click over to read your full article
Karen
Well, I design it on paper and then hand it off, so I don’t know if that counts or not.
Glad to know the little Did You Know area is working out ok, because I do remember you talking about that before, hehe! Thanks Karen!
Very strong Pat! Your point about audio content is getting me pumped for SPI podcasts. You going to keep them all for yourself?!
Keep all of the Podcasts for myself? Not sure exactly what you’re asking Dan, but I’m recording them to share with everyone!
“Design without content is useless, but content without design is dumb.”
With this statement, I couldn’t agree with you more…as the rules of so called ‘homepage’ have changed. It is like a shop: A) Good looking shop but lack of supplies (consumable stuff), and B) Lots of stuff inside but…”hey, man your shop is still in the 70′s”.
It took me approximately three months to tweak my site; illustration, css, php, html, etc….you name it. I lost count on how many sites I have visited especially on how to customize website or blog. I’m proud of myself as I manage to do it on my own. Nonetheless, I’m still learning and learning some more. Thanks again Pat for this great content. Cheers…
Nice Terrance, I didn’t realize that you did all of your site on your own – that’s awesome! I love your shop analogy too, it works perfectly for this situation. Keep up the good work! Cheers!
Thank you so much for your sincere compliment Pat. I truly adore your own work, nicely done site especially on your own, congrats. Actually, architecture and engineering are cousins. Wow, so much to learn…have to crack this brain some more. Keep up the genuine, humble, and great work! Cheers again…
You’ve sold me on the concept. I love going to the book store and perusing what the latest offerings are. You can tell what is selling by how it is displayed, with maximum exposure given to the witty cover graphics.
Yeah, that’s a great observation, Tyler. That’s why authors will spend loads of money on the cover design, because they know how much the cover alone can impact sales and success.
I’m a designer by trade, so I can relate.
People are drawn to aesthetically pleasing things just as much as they are drawn to things that are mentally stimulating. Why not do double damage and offer both?
People who merely shrug off design as frivolous do so because they see it as a waste of time, a weak point in their skill set, and a waste of money. What they fail to see is the potential investment in their future. Image may not be everything, but its still something. If you don’t stand out above the rest, you fall behind in the crowd.
If any of you are out there looking to promote yourself, do me a favor and do some research on branding and image building. You will benefit greatly from it. Trust me.
I TOTALLY agree, Drezz. I think we’re lucky to come with a design background, having been able to really experience the power of what good design can do. I think the people who shrug it off just simply think their content is good enough to do all of the work for them, while they could really be doing themselves damage by thinking that way.
Pat, I definitely agree to a certain extent. If the design of your site is so-so but content is awesome, I’ll likely stick around. If your design is bad, but content great, I probably won’t because of the judgements I’ll make rather quickly.
With that being said, I need to give my blog a major overhaul but there’s so much stuff coming up! East to west coast move included
Wow, lots of stuff on your plate Moon! But, it sounds like it’s all for the better, blog and move both! Good luck with the move! Did you get my email?
Yes I did and I really appreciate the help.
As somebody who recently did a fairly thorough redesign I would have to agree. I noticed my subscribers grow and my engagement level increase because of a redesign. Also thanks for the podcastanswerman link. That’s somebody I’m sure I’ll be interviewing soon.
Yeah Cliff is pretty awesome. He’s SOOOO passionate about podcasting. If you talk to him, you’ll understand right away what I mean. Thanks Srinivas!
Pat – You are absolutely right that design is important. The only thing I’d add is that a simple design can be a great design. In other words, you don’t necessarily need to go pay $500 for a custom blog design – when many clean and simple themes are available for free. For my blog and my ecommerce store, I get people to my site with content – I keep them with passion and great customer service, and I justtry not to push them away with design.
TJ, you’re totally right. There are PLENTY of well designed, free themes out there. I used one to get my LEED blog off the ground actually, and only redesigned it after over a year of selling my eBook, so again it’s not necessary to spend a lot or even anything at all to have good design – at least for a WordPress Blog.
And we could spend days talking about how important customer service is and what it can do for a brand, but we’ll save that for a later post.
Cheers!
I will say that the look and layout of your site rocks. Your use of color really pops on the page.
I get really picky about looks as well (being a Jewelry Graphic Designer). It has to have a visual balance and strong appeal. To sell Jewelry, it needs to look like a million bucks. I see other Jeweler’s ads in the newspapers and they all look crappy. I’m sure they do it to save time and money. They let the newspaper slap something together using dark, blurry, black and white images that are useless and hard to see. It doesn’t work very well. I’m sure it doesn’t sell their products very well either.
I say no problem. Let them think design is not important. It makes my job easier and my ads stand out from the competition. Way to go!
Thanks Richard! I appreciate the kind words.
And absolutely – graphics and pictures of your products are super important as well. I heard an internet marketer once say that people who shop online don’t buy the products, their buying pictures of the products – so whatever you’re selling should look visually appealing, or else you’re not going to sell as much as you possibly could.
This is a great post. I think the most important question you asked was: “Can you tell exactly what your site is about just from looking at the home page?”
Not only does this require a well-designed site, but the design MUST be influenced by the content. If Michael Jordan has a website, he’s going to be front and center. Why? Because he’s MJ. Everyone knows who he is, and he’s the content that will keep visitors on his site. But on my site nobody knows who I am or really cares (except my wife). They want to know what I’m doing, and if that’s enticing then they want to get to know me.
As a web designer it’s great to hear about the redesigns you make and why you make them. Keep it up and thanks for the article.
Thanks Jim!
And thanks for what you added about the design being influenced by the content. That’s a VERY important statement that a lot of designers seem to forget. Design and content should always try to work together.
Thanks Jim!
You know what’s amazing? Michael Jordan doesn’t have a website (besides one for his MJ flight school). But then, He’s MJ – so I guess he doesn’t need one.
Design does matter – obviously Steve Jobs gets this – it’s not enough to create a gizmo that does something well (like the zune) but when it does it well and looks beautiful & simple – you’ve got a game changer.
Pat, you obviously “get it” – your designs are improving; however I want to put this out there…
You probably have hundreds, if not thousands of readers who don’t really know beans about good design other than “I know it when I see it..” –
And many of these people are considering starting a blog, writing an ebook, etc.
Design is an ‘evolution’ – and I think for many people, it’s more important to get started than to wait for the perfect design. As one of my marketing mentors (Dan Kennedy) says: “Good enough is good enough.” – that’s not to say we shouldn’t test, and improve – but get your stuff out there, and change as you go.
as you cite the case of your ebook and the “buy” button… sure, a better button increased your sales 30%. But had you not started selling the book until you had the better button, you would have missed hundreds of sales.
And for those wanna-be bloggers who have a concept for their online business but haven’t launched their blog yet… they could be producing awesome content right now; and modify the design later. I guess I’m more of a “ready, fire, aim” guy; I’d rather start and get momentum, and tweak design as I go along.
Thanks for your input, David – it’s really valuable information. I always mention to my readers to never wait, and get stuff out there for eyes to see. That’s what always should be done, but it obviously shouldn’t stop there.
I hope this post doesn’t come across as saying something like you should wait until your design is ready until you launch, because that’s obviously not what should happen. As you may have heard me say before: “Every day you don’t have something out there for sale is a day of potential profits lost”.
I been in the “design without content” world before and you’re right – its useless.
Trying to balance the two now. Thanks for this article, should help.
Anytime Jay – thanks! I appreciate your comments!
You know this is something that I need to work on I know. But I just don’t have the funds and I am so dissapointed with my design because it’s designed by a person on my niche and like another 10 people that are in my niche have the same design. What do you recommend I do for now?
By the way great point I love the analogy, just read MADE TO STICK and I am like writing every analogy down I see.
Wilson – funds don’t matter – you can work on design and standing out from the crowd without money. That’s how I got started, and there are probably a number of things you can do to separate yourself and excel.
It’s tough though, because I know how it is when you don’t like your own design. It makes blogging that much harder, but remember – content is first, design come after – so don’t lighten up on your content. Keep at it, and best of luck to you!
thanks Pat!
Ha, ha, ha! I love the last line about Design being the beautiful Queen that makes the King look better – that sums it all up perfectly!
Thanks Ali! I appreciate it. I almost left it out because it’s a bit cheesy, but it does make perfect sense!
I’d like to add that good design and quality benefit Internet users with special needs. Persons with visual impairment pay very close attention to the audio quality of podcasts. People with hearing disabilities are kean on identifying good visual structure of pages. We can therefore get more visitors and customers from these groups if we provide good design and quality in addition to useful content.
Thanks Julius – those groups of people can definitely benefit from good design and presentation as well!
Thanks for the tips Pat. I’ve been meaning to find an intro song and adding a brief intro to my podcasts. I have to look around to find some good intro tunes. Any resources you recommend?
Hey Tony – I found mine on iStockAudio.com, but there are a lot of other royalty free websites where you can download an intro, although you’ll have to read about the licenses involved with using each particular clip.
A custom one from elance or another provider driven website might work out too.
Good luck!
You’re so right. I’m getting a lot more reader interaction (and more subscribers too) since the redesign/rename/relaunch of my blog. Makes me wish I’d done it years ago.
Ditto Jackie! I love your new design – so clean
This is just why I bought Camtasia to integrate HD video with written music chalkboard style disection. Camtasia sounds great when you record it separately in Pro Tools through an LA-610. I am an audio geek!
Thanks for making me feel better about my audio gear purchases Pat!
Haha – this post wasn’t meant to confirm expensive hardware purchases, but then again, if it means it will up the quality of your business (and yours especially, since it’s all about guitar playing), then maybe so.
I want to be an audio geek too! I borrowed my friends’ ProTools LE a couple of years ago and recorded some really nice songs with it. I should get back on that someday soon. All the best, John!
Excellent article Pat! I think good design has a fundamental importance in communication. If good design is accompanied by good content then you’ll have a perfect alchemy, and a often guaranteed success. In the experience of IamaSource, the website that I am about to launch shortly, we believe strongly in design and in its its communicative power. We are asking the best designers to participate in a competition to create our logo. A crowdsourcing experience that we will soon give to everyone the chance to try. Our slogan is “Where Design Matters”, but I must say that your “Content Without Design is Dumb” is fantastic!
All the best!
Hey Alex – very cool, and I wish you the best of luck with your upcoming project. I love the crowdsourcing idea, especially when it comes to things like logo design. Are you using 99design, or hatchwise to get it done for you?
Thanks for your wishes Pat! We are working hard on our new project. Actually we are developing with IamaSource a new platform based on the philosophy of crowdsourcing. For this reason we are gathering ourselves designers from around the world asking them to realize our logo (now) and many other projects (in the near future). A huge community is rapidly developing, also because we will rewards the best logo with a 2500€ prize… not bad! I’ll certainly keep you updated on IamaSource project!
Very good points. Putting our best foot forward is something I think we all do in our everyday lives. ie. Purchase a new suit for a job interview, or wear a new outfit on a first date, or wash and wax the car before picking up a date, run around the house cleaning before a short notice guest shows up, etc.
So, I guess our blog life should be that same…spend a few extra bucks on the products and equipment needed to present our blogs, podcast, and ebooks etc in their best light.
That’s true, Ms. Freeman, however it doesn’t even have to be done by spending money – just a little extra time and a conscious effort to make sure things are designed and presented well goes a long way!
I love this blog.
I think it can’t be repeated enough: Design = Credibility. That first impression you mention is so critical, and your design signals whether you know what you’re doing and that the subject matters to you. I agree with Seth Godin that it doesn’t always have to be slick, but it does have to reflect the contents.
To some it up. Content is King. Its the delicious food that you are about to serve. But if there are tens of others who will serve similar quality food you differentiate yourself by augmenting it with good design, cleanliness and way you present the food. Thats what makes it a 5 star product
Isnt it
I really like your post. Everyone is talking about how important content is but overlooks the importance of design. Three thumbs up for this post. There should be balance in everything.
yes, design and content is important although it seems the search engines only care about backlinks now
Yeah…this may be one of my central problems.
I made over 500 videos on youtube, talking about various topics. I think the content was good, but I never thought about design (editing, graphics, etc) and (thus far) I am not popular.
Coincidence? Probably not.
As a graphic designer I definetly agree that content without design is not a good idea. Visuals make a strong first impression in every market (tv, movies, web) so it is always best to make sure your business appeal image is up to par.
Pat – your graphics always look terrific, do you pull these off of graphic sites yourself, do you edit your own? Or do you outsource graphics design (thinking mainly of the graphics that appear in your posts).
Jeff
good blog must have a good design isn’t it?
good design need good quality of picture to build a good template of blog
it will make our blog slowly to open in first time, and as we know, google now rank a blog or website by its speed.
how to make a good design but not decrease a speed of our blog or website?
[...] You’ve heard me say this before: design without content is useless, but content without design is dumb. [...]