Priority Guides: A Content First Approach
February 9th, 2020
If you have ever found yourself in the situation of needing to design a website or an app from scratch, you know it can be a daunting task. What pages do you need? What problems does this site offer solutions for? What content needs to be created? There is a lot to figure out to be able to empathize with and give the most value to your users.
When starting a new design project, there is a lot of research and ideation that has to happen before you can begin to refine and down select those ideas. Depending on the size of the project, it is common to have the first deliverable be a wireframe. The challenge there is that focusing on the structural layout and is not good if you don't know what your content is. Even if you have a copywriter on your team, it can involve a chicken or the egg situation just to get started.
Enter priority guides. Drew Clemmins introduced this concept as a solution to challenges of responsive design. Even though today, it is mostly assumed that responsive design is the default, the concept of priority guides seem more relevant than ever.
How it works
You start with a mobile sized screen and section out the most important content at the top of the page. Each page has a goal, and a hierarchy of most important to least important content, according the user of the site or app.
Other tips include
- don't include layout elements
- leave the menu out
- use annotations to explain functionality and behavior
Advantages
Business Value
With each page or screen having a goal, it is clearly communicated what the user's need is and the business objectives we offer as solutions.
Speed
Once you content is settled, your developers can get started getting content to display on the page without having to wait for visual design.
Brings Copy and Design Together
Priority guides provide a clear and logical structure that can help get you started if you need to create content.
If you are interested this is an excellent in-depth guide to get you started