Content Structure Before Content Display #

When we’re building a website or an app, we first need to decide whether to configure the content structure first or to do the content structure and content display at the same time. Most of the time, we lean towards settling the content structure before the content display.

We first decide what kind of information we want to show and how it’s organized. This is called the content structure. For example, if we’re making a blog, we need to decide that each post will have a title, some text, an author, and a date.

Once we’ve decided on the structure, we can then think about how it will look—this is the content display. We might decide that the date should be at the top of the post or that the author’s name should be in bold.

It’s important to do the structure first because we can’t design how something will look until we know what that something is. Plus, if we change the structure later on (like adding a new category for each blog post), we might have to change your design too.

To figure out our structure, we can use wireframes (simple sketches of what each page will look like) and look at other similar websites or apps for ideas. We also need to talk to our clients to understand what they want and need. And we always remember to keep it simple!

This approach works best when we already have a good idea of what we want our website or app to look like and do. But if we’re still figuring things out and making lots of changes, it might be better to work on the structure and display at the same time.