Content vs. Format

From time to time, especially in the software and publishing business, you come across near absolute truths, one of which happens to be “Content always beats format”. The reason this is so easy to believe in is because it’s so easy to prove. A nice looking website which is never updated will always lose out to a relatively ugly website with its content updated often. That was easy and convincing enough, right?

More than a few times I’ve come across the wrong deductions from it, like my proof of its accuracy above. People tend to put too little emphasize in making their creations look nice, pursuing only the content or ”functionality” (if we’re talking about software applications). On more than many occations I’ve come across people that have made this really great application or web publication but fail to get any attention to it from having poor design advocating “first make it work, then make it beautiful”.

Much like a sad person won’t become any happier - long term - if he gets a lot money to spend, it’s really more pleasant to cry in a Rolls Royce than in your old Volkswagen, the same rule applies to web- and software applications. It won’t become a better application just by having it look pretty, but at the same time it certainly doesn’t hurt it to be presentable.

Having made an update to one of my projects of late - www.purposegames.com - it didn’t ad any new functionality (which it very much needs) but it’s become a better web app and web site from my update of its design. Also, it gives me peace of mind to start focusing on bringing some requested functionality to it, now that I’m happy with its presentation.

All in all, I think format doesn’t beat content, nor vice versa. Without one of these components a publication and/or application will fail with the broad public. Inevitably. You can quote me on that.

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