Kate Rutter recently published an interview with Kristina Halvorson, who in the previous month had spoken at Adaptive Path‘s Queens of Content event.
Halvorson is clear about the consequences of not focusing on content early in web project planning:
“Oh, where do I begin. Delayed start to the writing process, since Web content documentation needs to be agreed-upon, standardized, and built out. More delays, because suddenly gathering up the content becomes a messy, time-consuming, overwhelming task. Dozens of unplanned revisions as more and more content keeps being requested or remembered. Incredible, unavoidable scope creep. Tensions and frustrations because no one has the time (or the power) to slow down and make sure everything is consistent, relevant, clear. And, of course, the end result of crappy content that none of your customers care about.”
Delayed start…more delays…mess…overwhelming task…unplanned revisions…unavoidable scope creep…tensions…frustrations…crappy content…missed customers.
This is not a happy picture.
Our own research backs this up. Our data shows that ninety-five percent of web design companies suffer from late content delivery and late change requests.
Why is this? They can’t communicate the importance of content effectively. And they can’t collaborate with the client to ensure it’s produced early in the process. Therefore, it doesn’t influence the website architecture until too late.
What’s needed, then, is a way for designers and clients to rapidly begin drafting the website so that the importance of content is clear, and so that the client feels able to deliver it effectively. This solution needs to be flexible, fast and very responsive to changes – a site-before-the-site.
That’s why we’re making Sketch.
Tags: content, Sketch, web content, web project planning, website architecture