Clients love to write copy. Well, they love to plan to write it, anyhow. On most web design projects, content is the last thing to be considered (and almost always the last thing to be delivered). We’ll spend hours, weeks, even months, doing user scenarios, site maps, wireframes, designs, schemas, and specifications—but content? It’s a disrespected line item in a schedule: “final content delivered.” Pepi Ronalds proposes a solution to this constant cause of project delays.
Why Did You Hire Me?
Landing a new job or client is difficult in this economic climate. Undelivered contractual promises and work environment shortcomings can transform that challenge into a long-term nightmare. Keith LaFerriere shows how to get paid what you’re worth; how to fight for control of your projects using management tools corporate cultures respect (even if they don’t understand your work); and how to tell when it’s time to jump ship.
More from A List Apart
Humility: An Essential Value
In this excerpt from In Fulfillment: The Designer’s Journey, Justin Dauer ruminates on the past and the importance of keeping an open mind.
Personalization Pyramid: A Framework for Designing with User Data
Colin Eagan and Jeffrey MacIntyre offer a “ground-up” approach to implementing personalized digital experiences that are intentional, ethical, and technologically sound.
Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink?
Is mobile-first CSS always the best option? Patrick Clancey explores the pros and cons and lays out an alternative.
Designers, (Re)define Success First
Learn how to engage stakeholders, focus on impactful objectives, and measure the results in this template for ethical design.
Breaking Out of the Box
What can we do with thirty pixels? Windows Controls Overlay frees us from 40 years of history telling us how apps should look.
How to Sell UX Research with Two Simple Questions
Seriously, do not ever design screens again without first answering these questions: what are the objects and how do they relate?
A Content Model Is Not a Design System
Why do so many content models still look more like design systems rather than reflecting structured data? Mike Wills takes us on a personal journey as he examines his own past experiences and invites us to conceive content models that articulate meaning and group related content together for use on any channel.
Design for Safety, An Excerpt
In this excerpt from Design for Safety, Eva PenzeyMoog discusses concrete ways you can incorporate safety awareness into your design processes.
Sustainable Web Design, An Excerpt
In this excerpt from Sustainable Web Design, Tom Greenwood provides clear guidance on how to track and address the carbon footprint of our websites.
Voice Content and Usability
In this excerpt from Voice Content and Usability, author Preston So talks about the messy, primordial nature of human speech and challenges with programming computers to deal with these complexities.
Designing for the Unexpected
As devices continue to diversify in dizzying ways, how can we make sure our work on the web stays as relevant as ever for the long haul? Cathy Dutton shares how practitioners must perfect designs both for the paradigms of the present and the twists of the future, come what may.
Asynchronous Design Critique: Getting Feedback
Receiving feedback can be a stressful experience: will an open-ended question attract helpful guidance or harsh criticism? Erin “Folletto“ Casali coaches us through a process to ensure that feedback always lands gracefully.
