Content or Design: Which Comes First?

Some believe content needs to come first and others think its design that has to be made first. This is a debate that could go on and on, just like the “chicken or egg” question. What you are going to read next might surprise you. The answer is principles. It's neither content or design. Principles provide a framework for all other decisions. Without having a framework in place, having content or designs ready would not be of much help. After all, brands are founded on principles: a mission, a vision, and a promise. Each of these things requires underlying beliefs to animate them and to make them relevant to others.

Systematic Design

A design’s success depends on a systematic, scalable, and cohesive approach across a brand’s many outputs and environments. Creating a design system that helps translate brand aesthetics and approaches to functionality into modular components that can be mixed and matched to meet any UI’s unique needs is a must. Having a systemized design language in place simplifies decision-making, cuts down on development times, and frees up designers to work on higher-profile projects where design patterns haven’t already been established.

UX Writers, the Wait Is Over

UX writers make the boring and annoying 404 pages fun and interesting, conversations with chatbots engaging, and ensure that users are not put off while conversing with a robot but, on the contrary, enjoy the conversation. All of this will become a topic of discussion in the coming year. 

Fonts - Newbies Join the Gang

A joint project between the biggest names in tech and typography — Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe — the variable font project enables a whole new form of typeface design. Variable font is a single font file that behaves like multiple fonts. It has the functionality to go from thin to jet black in a jiff without having to use multiple fonts.

Visuals Over Static Images

When you’re trying to convey complex information in a visual format, a static image often just won’t do. A still image of a UI only tells you what’s in it, not how to use it.

Floating Navigation Menu

Fixed navigation has become a mainstay of sites that are either conversion-focused or have sprawling menus. It’s a nice way to simplify the experience of a site by keeping navigational controls constantly at the user’s fingertips. Designers are visually detaching the navigation bar from the rest of the site design, which reinforces a feeling that the navigation is a global object.

Less Is More

2018 is the year where we will witness the concept of less is more. Having too many elements and giving many choices to the users is a big no. Instead, your best bet would be to have a simplistic, minimalistic and less visual distraction. This would improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.

Digital Design in 2018 needs to be simple yet attractive and has to ooze creativity with engaging and interesting content. Web Developers believe that visuals are going to take over static images and are here to stay to grab attention and attract an audience. With that in mind, here’s wishing you a creative New Year!