The great communicators and designers of the world start their projects in the proper place: content first, always. This thinking tends to make content strategists happy, but rarely are they included in the design process. Content-first design demands the inclusion of those content strategists and creators from the start. Imagine a university website rebuilt with narrative as its guiding light. Consider the new audience engagement opportunities created when content strategist are considered as creative partners. But how do those responsible for content and story-telling ensure that they’re not just relegated to filling in boxes that a designer has determined for them?
In this session, we will examine a content-first approach in other high-engagement business sectors and look at how focusing on content before any technical or design considerations are made can help improve our digital communications in higher education. You will leave this session with new ideas and a solid path forward to making content strategy crucial to design projects at your institutions.
Key takeaways
1. A working definition of content-first design and its benefits to higher education marketing and communications.
2. A mental framework for considering content strategy work as central and crucial to the entire design process.
3. Practical ways to include their content work in the design process.