Intentional Communication:
Expanding our Definition of
User Experience Design
kristina halvorson
Brain Traffic | kristina@braintraffic.com
Design and content. Content
and design. It’s impossible (and
stupid) to argue over which
one is more important than the
other—which should come first,
which is more difficult or “
strategic.” They need each other to
provide context, meaning, information, and instruction in any
user experience (UX).
Despite this screamingly
obvious interdependence in
any online user experience, the
two sit at opposite ends of the
proverbial totem pole. Up top:
design. This is “where the magic
happens.” It’s a mysterious
process, one in which art and
science come together to create
intuitive interfaces, compelling visuals, and flow. Superior
design skills are perceived as
rare and precious. Design is hard.
Content? Anyone can do con-
tent. You there. Typing. Do some
content. See? Down to the bot-
tom of the pole you go.
Design is perceived as a stra-
tegic undertaking, while content
is the stuff we churn out ad
nauseam, hopefully engaging
at least a few of our users along
the way. For this and myriad
other reasons, design and con-
tent aren’t usually considered
simultaneously in our project
processes. Design first. Content
whenever we can get to it. (As
Peter Merholz once facetiously
said, “Content is just an undif-
ferentiated substance for me to
pour into my design.”)
when content is
“someone Else’s Problem”
As UX designers, we regularly
see the results of our efforts
fall far short of our original
vision due to poorly executed
content. When content efforts
are underestimated, last minute, and generally siloed from
our design processes, we end up
with either the subpar content
we started with or new subpar
content. And in about two seconds, that same subpar content
can destroy our online user
experience.
It’s not that we don’t care. It’s
simply that dealing with content
creation and governance isn’t
something that has traditionally
fallen within a UX designer’s
jurisdiction. Don’t get me
wrong. We’ve fought for process
improvement. We’ve begged to
have the writer involved earlier
in the project. We’ve pushed for
answers about content before
starting to structure pages and
moving toward visual design.
And every time, there’s never
enough time. Or not enough
budget. Or people. Or concern.