Thinking about the 3 biggest challenges for a web designer in Singapore, I have to say that it is
Content, content and content!
Here in Singapore, I am not sure what it’s like elsewhere in the world, but here a web designer is expected to also generate the content. Especially for SMEs.
For the local people reading this, you are probably saying, “the, of course..”
Content versus Design
Well actually, content and design are not the same thing or let me put it this way, design does not include content creation, unless it is part of the package. Allow me to clarify further. If you commission us to design a website for your company and I am creating a page for “about us” for your company, who should have this piece of information? Who owns the story? Should it be your company or us? Of course, if we are commissioned to write the content, which we can, then it is a different story.
Your Content is Your Story
But yes, your company should own the story and write your own story, similarly for product information. I have had the marketing girl from a local SME just send me the product name and expect me to write or copy the product information from the principal’s website and add it into their store. The product information on your product page is what sells a product, it should not be left to chance or simply copied from somewhere else.
So what do I mean by Design?
Design is presenting the content according to the style that best represents your company. Design encompasses the User Interface, UI, and the User Experience, UX.
UI and UX? Someone explained it this way using a restaurant analogy: “UI is the table, chair, plate, glass, and utensils. UX is everything from the food, to the service, parking, lighting and music.”
So yes, we design the UI, the pages, the navigation, the call to action, we use videos and images and headers, we design the forms, we seek to tell the story with the content that you provide us with, then we investigate the UX from the UI that we build. We can use analytics or we can poll the users or we can do beta testing for comparison.
So Back to Content
Content is what engages a customer and ranks a website for search. Design with no content will not rank a website. Looking all pretty and fancy doesn’t mean the site will get noticed.
So wouldn’t you put more emphasis on content from now on? We love working with customers with good content, they know what they are about and where they are going, and they set a clear direction for the website because then we can really be very creative to tell a compelling story.
