A Publishing Revolution

November 4, 2008 | by Carrie Hane Dennison | Posted in Web Content, Web Strategy

When I meet someone and we discuss the usual "what do you do" inevitably I have to explain that while I work on websites I do not design them nor to I create them, I work on the content and all the strategy behind the scenes to make the website work well. Too many times I also have to remind people that I am not a "computer person" – I use my computer to do work just like just about everybody else who works in an office. That doesn’t make me an expert on what happens inside the computer or on the network it accesses to connect to the Internet. In short, I am a web editor. I could more easily transfer my skills to a print magazine than to an IT department.

Editing is new to the world wide web, but it is an old profession. Why the dichotomy? Because most business and organizations do not think of websites as publications. If they did, they wouldn’t think of design first and content last. It is time to stop thinking about websites as technology and consider them a publication. Would any organization think to publish a magazine without content? No! Yet for most website projects, the last thing delivered is the content. This causes delays, increases budgets and decreases usability.

Delays are caused by the content not being ready. Too often the person responsible for website content has too many other things to do and new web content is low on the priority list – until it's time for the new site to be ready and everyone is waiting for content. Changes in navigation also cause schedule delays. Often menus have to be changed because there is either not enough or too much content to fit into the site's architecture. Home pages sometimes need to be redesigned when content comes in – or conversely content gets left off the home page because it doesn’t fit the design. Designs are created with a certain amount of information in mind, which usually does not match actual content in amount or subject.

Because of these delays, budgets are shot because of redesigns, coding changes and additional content beyond what was originally budgeted. And because by now the launch date is in the past, everyone is scrambling to get the new site "up" that the only person who cares that the content is good and usable is the poor editor. I can't count the number of sites I’ve worked on that had this great new design with the same old content because no one had time to write new content so they tell me to "take what’s on the old site." It's like getting a new body for a car whose engine doesn't work. Old or poor content decreases the visitors' ability to find what he needs, thus causing poor usability.

So I call on all organizations who are creating or redesigning a website to think about what they want the website to do and say and then think about how they want it to look. Sure it's more exciting to see those new blues and greens and purples light up the screen, but is that going to help anyone? If you take the time to think about who uses your site and how, you’ll gain loyal users who know they can count on your website anytime to get the information or products or services they need.

* Thanks to Pepi Ronalds for putting this bee in my bonnet with her The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome article.