Design, HTML... and Content

You'd be forgiven for thinking that there were only two parts to a website:

• The design of the website
• The code - the HTML - that goes to make up that website

But this two-piece model omits the life-blood of a website: its content.

All Skin and Bone?

I like to think of the design as the skin, and the HTML as the bones.

Don't get me wrong, strong bones and beautiful skin are important. But a dead person might have strong bones and beautiful skin!

What breathes life into a website is its content.

Design, HTML and Content are inextricably linked

These three elements overlap and intertwine:

• A key part of the design is the overall structure of the page... as created by the HTML
• HTML sits behind the content of each individual page
• The content contributes to the design of each page

Good Design, Good HTML and Good Content

A good website needs all of these things. Each has an important part to play in the success of your website:

Notice how each element has an important part to play. Each, if done badly, have the potential to destroy a website - even if the remaining elements are done well:

• Bad Design -

  "It's bang up to date, and it claims to be the definitive reference... but I can't find my way off the home page!"

• Bad HTML -

  "Nice graphics, and there's tons of content... but it looks all broken in my browser!"

• Bad Content -

  "Looks great, easy to use, very fast to load... but it hasn't been updated in six months!"

Where's the content?

Thanks to the work of Jacob Neilsen and others, the role of design in usability is now better understood. And while there's a lot of messy HMTL out there, the charitable nature of Internet Explorer makes this less of a problem than it might be.

While much of the Design and HTML arrived with the website, Content is something that requires an ongoing effort. Some sites will need to be fed more often than others, but without the food of content, they will surely die.