Content design means not limiting yourself to just words. Content on the web is often words, but not always.

The point of content design is that you start with research, which helps you identify what your user actually wants. This, however, is not always what they need.

<aside> 🚨 “This book is not about design as in graphics, icons, look and feel, colours, interaction and so on. It’s about the content that sits within the design.” Content Design by Sarah Winters

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Whenever it comes to content design, try saying

“What content will best meet this need?”,

instead of

“How shall I write this?”

The answer to this question may or may not be with words, but could also be a number of other things including;

pictures, diagrams, charts, links, questions & answers, videos, spreadsheets

When your job is to decide which one of these, or what combination of the examples above will meet the user’s needs… that is Content Design.

As I said above, something that becomes prevalent within content design, is the differentiation between want and need. A person may say they want a quick and easy solution to a complicated debt problem. But what they actually need is a series of easy-to-follow steps to get them out of the debt, which may not be quick and easy. Therefore, whenever it comes to content design, being able to decide what is actually needed over wanted is key to how successful the design will be.