The game of Chinese whispers makes all sites Greek to us
Author of this post: Jane G | About Blog Authors »
In the past, I’ve worked on a few projects where there were quite a few layers between myself as copywriter, and the designer(s) of a site. For some reason, many think that as long as the site structure or copy inventory is passed along to the writer everything will be fine. But there are problems that ensue when a project is structured in such a manner.
As designers work their magic on the layout of a website, things have a tendency to change. That is just a part of the creative process. But these changes usually affect the amount of space allotted for the introduction or a description of something on a page. When this happens it’s important to share the information with your copywriter on the project. Otherwise you both will end up spending time making unnecessary revisions.
And in some cases, copywriters end up acting as the information architect for a project, usually smaller ones when there is no need to hire an IA. As the copy is created, a writer might see that there is a better way to organize the content, which would require a change to layout. This is yet another reason for designers and copywriters to work together to make certain that they are on the same page. Not doing so can result in lost hours, unnecessary revisions, and generally a lot of headache and stress that could have been avoided.
As you build out pages, one way to solve this problem is to throw Lorem Ipsum into the layout and give the writer a character count so they know how much space they get to play with. If the copy is driving the design, a similar character count for the designer can be helpful as well.
So, work with your copywriter and as a site evolves, keep the channels of communication open. You’ll both discover the process to be less stressful and the quality of your work will ultimately benefit. It may seem logical but in real world applications, sometimes these things happen. If we can nip them in the bud and be conscious of the issue, we can work toward avoiding it.
Now when it’s the client that goes about changing things…you’re on your own. ;)
–Posted by Jane G
