This week, we were introduced to content design by our lecturer, Kyle, where we explored the role of content across devices from smartwatches to large screens. We discussed Surface, Structure, Scope, Push vs. Pull content, and how effective design goes beyond words to presentation, usability, and trust. The session also outlined a responsive workflow: Discovery, Planning, Text Design, Sketching, Visual Design, Build, and Testing, as well as how we can apply this process to this year’s projects, including one we touched upon, which is designing a smartwatch application. I’m excited to get started in this area and begin planning and designing with the knowledge I’ll be gaining along the way.
To begin our lecture, we began by understanding what content design is, which I found to be very interesting as we briefly touched upon before, but now getting to chance to broaden my understanding was a great choice. Content design goes beyond just writing words; it’s about creating content such as text, images, video, GIFs, audio, etc, that is clear, purposeful, and tailored to meet user needs. It looks at how content is structured and presented so that it’s not only engaging but also easy to use and accessible. The key idea is that content isn’t just filler; it drives the user’s experience and often determines whether a product or service is effective.
Once we had a basic idea of what Content design is about, we then looked into how content shapes information so that it meets user needs in the clearest, most effective way. Before reviewing this topic, I had some knowledge of how content was displayed but not much knowledge of the reasoning behind it, so with my learning, I was able to understand that it involves choosing the right format, whether text, images, video, or interactive media, and ensuring that content is purposeful, easy to understand, and accessible. A key part of content design is recognising the difference between push and pull content:
The process of content design focuses on user needs first, then shaping and testing content so it works in context. This ensures information is not only relevant but also easy to navigate. Ultimately, content design is about removing friction, making experiences more intuitive, and ensuring content does the job it was created for. With this ideology in mind, it makes the creative and thought process a lot easier, especially when it comes to our own projects that involve content design and knowing why we would include that necessary or specific content regime.
After gaining an understanding of the main areas of content design and how it is applied, we moved on to the briefing for our first project of the semester: designing a smartwatch application. This project builds on the idea that content comes in many forms, from text and icons to colour, images, and video, and that each element plays a role in shaping the user experience. The brief is to design three screens for a smartwatch app, with flexibility around the theme. Possible directions include fitness tracking, water intake reminders, mobile payments, or even a children’s tracker. The goal is to consider how different types of content can be presented in a clear, usable way on a smaller screen format, where space and simplicity are key. Upon viewing, Kyle suggested that we follow the given workflow shown below when approaching our first project to help us know what direction to take during each step which I found to be very useful and will look to apply this to other future/upcoming projects as well.
Towards the end of the class, Kyle set us a workshop task where we worked in groups with our peers. My group included myself, Christopher, Katie and Shea, where, from a content list provided during the lecture, each of us selected two or more items and created mind maps around them. The aim was to explore what content would be displayed, its overall purpose, and what users like ourselves would expect or want to see. We collectively looked into content areas that included fitness, travel, money, education and health. I found the activity helped us as a group think critically about how different content types function in practice, and how design choices can directly support user needs. It was quite enjoyable, and I got into a rhythm when I started rhyming off different suggestions for my chosen categories.
