Designing Content
October 17, 2005
This is where you put your content
When designing a site, in addition to the overall design, I’ll do custom layouts for certain pages based upon the different types of content. I usually tweak the design of the site again to help everything flow together. I spend a lot of time thinking about how certain elements of the site will interact with each other. Since web design is not static, I make allowances for that in the design and try to anticipate the areas of the layout that will need the most flexibility.
If it’s a site that is going to be maintained by someone other than myself, or even if I am going to be the one making updates, a Content Management System is usually part of the process. This involves breaking the layout into blocks of content, and making templates that have repeating information such as a header and a footer. What I end up with is a basic framework that has one or two areas that I will insert content into.
When I go to add new content through a CMS, unless I am entering in HTML, I’m not really forced to think about what type of content it is that I am adding. Is it a heading, it is a paragraph, or is it a list of items?
Word Processing the web
Content Management Systems are really great at helping you organize, edit, and publish your site. But they don’t really help you with the most important part of the site, the content. Sure, they let you add and edit text, but when it comes marking up new content, choices become limited.
There is a whole interface devoted to other functions of the site, but just an area within a page for the content. Users generally end up with a window in which they can either paste in their own HTML, or use an editor that resembles a word processor. You wouldn’t use Microsoft Word to build your website, so why have a editor that looks and functions like a word processor?
A better CMS
What if there were different types of areas for adding different types of content? What if the editor could help the user markup the content without them even realizing it? What if content wasn’t relegated to just one page? What if you could markup your content and create new pages that assembled different types of content? What if it could do all these things in a simple and intuitive way?
I’m definitely not the first person to raise this issue, but web design has changed dramatically with the advent of web standards, and it’s time to see Content Management Systems reflect those changes.
There are 10 comments
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1Michael Caldwell
I couldn’t agree more. We use Stellent to manage http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu and really tried to build the design with modern, semantic markup in mind.
Between beating the CMS into submission and educating content contributors about appropriate usage (without demanding too much from them), it’s been a challenge.
Gorgeous site, by the way. Well done!
2T
You’re absolutely right about this, this is one of the reasons I’ve decided to undergo a large project with some colegues, to try to deliver a CMS that finally adresses the “middle size” web designer/developer.
I’de be very gratefull for a kind of a list of features that are esential for a CMS to be chosen, or a list of features that lack in today’s most popular CMS solutions, in your opinion.
Who knows, maybe we’ll be worth it.
thnx
3Darren
Michael - I feel your pain, I struggle with the same issues on a daily basis. Good job on the site.
T - I’ve mentioned a few things in the article that I would definitely like to see. I think the most important one is that most Content Management Systems focus on what do with your content after it has been added and not enough on how skilled and unskilled users add and edit information.
4Lee
The problem which I can’t see any answer to is the fact that creating semantically correct, accessible markup is one of the skills that mark out a web developer. How does a CMS wrangle with where to use a DL/UL/OL tag? How does it decide when to use an abbreviation or an acronym?
A CMS either gives users WYSIWYG functionality, in which case correct markup cannot be guaranteed, or else it allows them to add their own markup, in which case you can’t guarantee anything.
I believe there never will be a perfect solution, and that’s why web developers are web developers and a CMS is only a tool that assists users to add content to a website. If they could do everything themselves then what’s the point of being a web developer? There’s more to developing sites than just adding content, and that’s why CMS’s have their drawbacks. At the end of the day there will always be a need for the developers to ensure everything runs smoothly.
5Josh
I’m pretty new to the web designer thing, but, one thing that helped me was the use of a CMS. I understand the frustration between having nothing at all and having a “MS Word-lik” editor, however, many CMS today employ things like Textile to mark up the page. I’m not sure if that’s the point you were trying to make though. I guess the way to go for custom content design would be a custom designed CMS to fit the needs of the publisher.
6Darren
The point of the article is not to undermine the need of a CMS, or diminish the value of web developers. It is to challenge the current approach for inputting and using content.
As someone who designs, develops and maintains several sites with different types of contributors with different skill sets, I see a need for something that functions differently than your typical word processor.
It doesn’t have to be perfect, just better.
7Zach Blume
Sounds familiar… like… textile? Maybe that’s dancing around this concept (and vice verca).
8Derek Davis
Those questions you posed at the end of your post: I agree with them. I have found that Contensive (http://www.contensive.com) is doing much of that. They aren’t open source by any means, but then again, you get what you pay for.
9JasonM
I found myself nodding as I read your post, we have designed a site for use with a big CMS product and found some of the limitations unbearable.
10Otto
Cool!.. Nice work…