Designing for clarity: The art of content prioritisation

Content prioritisation is a crucial aspect of designing a website. It involves organising the information on your site in a logical and strategic way to ensure that your audience can easily understand and appreciate the benefits of your product or service. Essentially, it is about determining the order in which your content should be presented to your visitors.

Traditionally, designers have emphasised the importance of placing critical information “above the fold.” This term originated from the newspaper industry, where editors would place the most important stories on the top half of the front page, visible even when the paper was folded. In web design, above-the-fold content refers to any information that is visible to users when they first visit your website, without requiring them to scroll.

However, the concept of above-the-fold content is becoming outdated for several reasons. Firstly, mobile traffic has surpassed desktop traffic, and visitors to your site may view it on smaller screens where scrolling is essential. Additionally, many users expect to scroll, so the importance of above-the-fold content has diminished.

When designing a website, it is vital to consider the Serial Position Effect, which is the phenomenon that people tend to remember the first and last items on a list. This is due to the primacy effect, which causes us to show favouritism to items we see first, and the recency effect, which makes us remember items we have seen recently.

The Serial Position Effect can be useful when you want users to remember one or two essential takeaways from your content. However, for more complex topics, a Progressive Disclosure tactic is a better way to help users understand the information presented. This technique involves spreading information across multiple screens and requiring interactions to move from one to the next, which reduces the risk of overwhelming the user with too much information.

To make the navigation process seamless for your visitors, it is important to provide them with a clear and intuitive navigation system. By doing so, users can find the information they need easily, even if it is buried in a long page. Common ways to achieve this are through truncated content and accordion displays, both of which provide users with a streamlined and interactive experience.

In summary, content prioritisation is vital for effective website design. It involves organising the information on your site strategically to help your audience understand the benefits of your product or service fully. Designers can utilise the Serial Position Effect and Progressive Disclosure tactics to help users remember and process complex information, while a clear and intuitive navigation system can make the user experience seamless.

If you are looking to create a website that is both visually stunning and highly effective, we can help you achieve your goals. Our team of experienced designers and developers can work with you to craft a website that prioritises your content and provides your users with an intuitive and seamless navigation experience. We pride ourselves on creating custom websites that not only look great but also deliver real results for our clients. So, if you are ready to start your next web design project, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us today.