What is Content (or Information) Design?

Content design is a field that focuses on the content—the "text" (hypertext, visuals, language, etc.)—and its effective presentation to the audience. The audience (users, readers, visitors) expect certain elements and styles for documents, and the creator of the text needs to design documents to meet those expectations. Content design has also been called "technical writing," "technical communication design," "content design," "writing for the Web," and a variety of other terms. But these terms can have various meanings, each depending on the person using the term, and the field has changed as technology has changed.

Content design includes how to

• create navigation so the reader can find information
• persuade a reader to believe that the content is credible and valuable
• organize the document to meet the audience's reading patterns
• maintain the reader's attention
• increase SEO
• link effectively
• use language to clearly and concisely communicate
• integrate design elements (e.g., bullets, rules, white space, new paragraphs) to make information scannable
• present visual information in a document
• cite sources for information
• build the reader's trust

The designer also needs to consider the audience, the purpose of the document, and the constraints that go with document, as outlined in Lloyd Bitzer's 1969 article, "The Rhetorical Situation."


What can you expect from a blog about information design?
As your read this blog, you will learn the how and why to questions in this list as well as other skills that will enable you to meet your readers' needs and expectations. You will be able to use the information in this blog to improve your communication skills, your credibility, your professionalism, and your writing.

Why is content design an important topic for this blog?
Students coming into my class frequently state, "I don't know what 'content design' is," so they are unsure what to expect in a class that focuses on content design. Design is a topic these students know; they are artists, modelers, animators, and (thus) designers. But they are unsure how information relates to design.

Content design is imperative to creative effective digital documents. Documents that have audience-focused language that is clear, concise, and scannable are relevant for readers. Readers want to find information quickly and move on, and they will spend their time on documents (such as Web pages and emails) that are well written. Readers also need visual elements to be well designed with legends, scales, and colors so they can easily read and understand the visual aids.

What resources will this blog present?
This blog contains information that from "Digital Content Design and Usability"—an upper-level (junior) communication class at The University of Texas at Dallas. The class instructs art and technology (ATEC) students to better design information and present it effectively.

What is Navigation?

We are always try to "find our way"—when we travel, when we work, when we read. Life is a journey, and navigation is an important part of every element of that journey. But what is navigation and how do you apply that to information design?

Navigating through the Pearl Harbor Ship Channel

When I was a teenager, my family lived in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a family friend (Dale) invited me one day to go sailing with him and his son. We rented a small sailboat, and we met at the marina at Hickam Air Force Base to take the sailboat out through the mouth of the marina—between the flightline (which ran out into the ocean) and the entrance to Pearl Harbor ship channel—and then out into the Pacific Ocean.

As we began to sail out of the marina, Dale pointed out the buoys that were floating nearby and explained that, while we might not see how deep the water was, we would sail between the buoys to ensure that we could get out to the ocean. The buoys served to help us navigate our way through to know where the waterway was deep enough for a boat to go.

Pearl Harbor's ship channel has  concrete blocks on either side of the channel. I'm not sure why, but in some places, you can step out on those concrete blocks to get right up to the water when the tide is out. If we had wandered outside the navigated path and tide had been out, we might have scraped the bottom of the boat on the concrete blocks that surrounded that path and thus damaged our boat.

Navigating through a Document

Just as we navigated through the marina, your readers will need to navigate through your document. And effective information design considers the reader's "navigation." Your reader may be searching for specific information—e.g., a link, a source, a heading—and you as a writer want to be able to enable the reader to find that information.

For example, when you write a report, you provide your reader with a table of contents and you label each page after the first with numbers. Then, readers who are looking for information can go through the table of contents, identify the location for that information, and find the page on which that information exists.

On your resume, you will provide your reader with conventional headings that will help a reader locate specific information. You may label sections with "Experience" or "Education" or "Skills" to help the reader find that information more easily.

If you are writing a virtual document, you will also provide navigation. For example, if you are writing a blog, you will provide your readers with a list of archived posts (preferably by title rather than by date) so your readers can locate a post by the information they are seeking.

Navigation is central in information design, and to effectively plan your navigation you must focus on your user's needs and consider how the user will use the document. (Planning is part of the writing process, and you can consider navigation during the early stages of the process to improve your document's effectiveness.) To successfully plan and navigate a document, consider what conventional elements your reader expects and how your reader will work through the document. Make navigation a priority, particularly if you want to create a user-centered design.