This is for a variety of reasons. In order to serve existing customers and attract new ones, organisations need to create more content than ever before. But marketers know that poorly- designed content (both in terms of aesthetic and usability) can do a brand more harm than good. To prevent this, they’re coming to rely heavily on their design colleagues, who are in turn, becoming a core part of multi-skilled, collaborative, content development teams.

To succeed In this newly-evolved role, designers need a relentless focus on user experience (UX), a flexible approach to layout and functionality, and a proficient blend of creative thinking and technology expertise. In this blog, we’ll look at some of the technologies designers should be aware of, and how it’s helping to solve content challenges.

Mobile Content & Digital Publishing

For mobile content, the gold-standard for user experiences is apps, where it’s arguably more important to have a cohesive feel, taking native navigation expectations into account.

To create documents and long-form magazine style content for mobile, there is a well established range of desktop publishing software including; Scribus, Lucidpress, Microsoft’s Publisher, Quark, and publishing industry stalwart - Adobe InDesign. Whilst this kind of software is great for producing PDF files for print or digital, when used on it’s own, outputs can be limited to fixed sizes (although usually scalable). Also, the static files can be problematic for mobile use, and can present a challenge when looking to incorporate rich media.

An excellent way to extend the functionality of desktop publishing suites (like InDesign), is companion software, often integrated by means of plugins. With these tools, designers can augment their content with interactivity, video and more.

Wireframes and Prototypes

Whether we’re talking about B2C customers, B2B customers, employees, investors, or anyone else that comes into contact with your organisation, the vast majority of their digital journeys start on the web - increasingly, via mobile devices.

As such, the ability to design for web is a basic requirement. From blog microsites and landing pages, to fully-fledged eCommerce sites or content portals, the process starts with wireframes and prototypes. Prototyping is particularly important when designing for various screen sizes at once, and developing a cohesive feel across digital and print assets.

Perhaps the best-known software for this is Adobe Xd CC - part of Adobe’s creative cloud - but there are other solutions, including Sketch, Invision, Pidoco, Justinmind, and Balsamiq to name but a few - each have varying degrees of functionality and price points. Some go well beyond wireframes and prototypes, offering low-code editing and deployment capabilities.

Key Themes

Of course, in this short blog it’s impossible to cover all the technology options out there so, as well as the points we’ve covered, if you’re evaluating interactive content technology for your business, look for some key fundamentals, including;

After that, it’s up to you as a designer to stay up-to-date with the latest technology, and to be aware of cultural influences, design norms and trends - everything from stickers and emojis, to memes, the latest software, hardware, and everything in between. This knowledge is key to your new role at the heart of your organisation’s content team!