So, we do lots of websites. The story is usually the same: discovery, content strat and generation, prototyping and design, code, launch. There are, of course, many other things that might need to be done: usability testing, complex interaction design, technology, etc…

When we started doing this we thought very differently about what the ciritcal elements in the make up of a great website are. Over the years though, we have come to the conclusion that it all comes down to content. Good information. The design can be very mediocre, the code messy, the navigation adequate but bad content = ultimate fail.

So, to that end we modified our approach to be content centric and thanks to clever people like Catherine Green, we are doing better sites.

If you are interested in this kind of thing, check out Jakob Neilsen. He is an old school usability guru. Im always amazed by the quality and simplicity of his writing (always backed by mind numbing volumes of data). Check out this article on how users read your website!

The highlights:

• Users scan – the don’t read
• Highlighted words get love
• Bullets work
• Use headings and summarise content for easy consumption
• Halve your wordcount