Content is king.  There, I said it.  What would your website, app, magazine, movie, etc… be, without content?

That being said, design is often equally important.  The way your content is presented, conveyed, adorned, etc… will make or break the overall experience of using it.

So, where does that put you?

First, let’s kick that idea around for a minute.  What does “Content is King!” mean, anyway?  Are we talking about copy?  How about images, graphics, or video?

Yes.

Content is the stuff people came for.  It’s the bread.  Design is often the stuff that initially holds the attraction.  It’s the butter.  Let’s not forget the knife!

You’re the knife.  Or maybe it’s more useful to think of your tools as the knife.  Either way, you may be in charge of the proper spread.  As the person in charge of how and where to present content, you have a lot to consider.

What do you have to consider?

I could yak all day, but who has time for that?  I want to know what YOU consider when stitching design and content.

Fill the comments with your thoughts!

You probably know by now that a great UI (User Interface) can literally transform your project, product, business, into a success (or a failure).

You might also know that your bottom-line is directly impacted by the quality of the design behind your user interface.

Yes, of course.

But do you know why, or how? Really?

In the indispensable Universal Principles of Design, authors William, Kritina, and Jill present a theory:

Another name for this article might have been something like “Pure Product Satisfaction, and the Designs behind it”.

Today I’m talking about one of the essential design principles laid out in Universal Principles of Design (a book you should have), which I refer to as “The Triangle”, in order to throw you off for a moment while I feel 2 levels smarter.

Ok, really, “The Triangle” is better known as the Hierarchy of Needs, which in our case refers to the needs of our users.

It is the task of the UX designer to ensure these needs are met through the experience of using our products and services.

In order for these basic needs to be met, we first have to identify them. Here goes:

• Creativity
• Proficiency
• Usability
• Reliability
• Functionality

Recognizing a pattern yet? These needs are stacked by order of support, and by contribution to the perceived value of a user experience. They’re originally adapted from the more familiar stack of needs, known as Maslow’s Hierarchy: