Written by Matthew J. De Reno Wednesday, 16 February 2011 09:54

A Bold Challenge To "Content Is King"

Most web folks have heard the industry saw that "Content is King." Allow me to challenge this notion for a brief second and present the case for presentation. You will see this is merely not a question of philosophy. There are concrete realms where presentation matters and not only does it matter, but perhaps it reigns supreme. I don’t want to say presentation is superior, because I am not out to flip the “Content Is King” maxim on its crown. I will argue, however, that presentation is equal to content in many ways. At the very least, it surely is no second prince. This article will explain why. 

Let’s start with the basics. Can you truly separate presentation from content? I say no you can't. The only thing that is all content without any concept of presentation whatsoever is perhaps the idea of the human soul. Other than that, things must be presented.

So how can I best present the case for presentation and challenge the notion that “Content Is King”? I will begin with the simple assertion that content NOT presented is no content at all. Content without presentation is an idea about content.  Information is content and presentation co-existing together. Content can't exist without some sort of presentation.

With all apologies to physicists, think of Einstein's concept of Space-Time. You can't move through Space without moving through Time and vice versa. They are inseparable. Einstein proved it was silly to think of them separately. When we considered them together, a whole new way of looking at universe emerged.

Can there be such a similar relationship between content and presentation? In other words, is it dumb to even consider content separate from presentation and vice versa? Can you even have one without the other? I would argue the answer is no.

No Presentation is the “Non-Presentation Presentation Plan”

There was a scene in the film Along Came Polly starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Anniston. Ben’s character is all about planning and probability. His love interest, played by Aniston, was abhorred by the notion of planning and having structure in her life. She stated she didn’t plan life at all. She was a free spirit. He told her, well, she did plan: she was on the “Non-plan plan.” Unformatted text is sort of like the “Non-plan, plan” of presentation.

Unformatted text at its barest essence is still presentation. XML-tagged text is a form of presentation as neutral and as versatile as that presentation may be. You didn’t eliminate the presentation. You made a choice to present content in the “non-presentation presentation plan” which will be presented to an XSLT parser, a DTD, CSS, or some type of schema, which will transform that text into HTML, PDF or some other format. 

In the real world, presentation is part and parcel of content.If I had the best qualifications for a job, matched all the criteria by some HR search query to fill a vacancy, if I had the best references, the best job titles, all the right key words, would I still get the job if my resume was written on, say, a crinkled sheet of newspaper paper that was covered in coffee stains?

Unless a relative worked there, probably not. Consider the following text examples:

I need you to send me that report now.

Let’s present it in another basic way.

I NEED YOU TO SEND ME THAT REPORT NOW.

Hmm. Did the presentation change the content? If you are of the notion that ALL CAPS text is screaming at someone in an email, yes it did. The presentation delivered the emotion, which changes the content.

I hold that presentation imbues content with context and therefore by its very nature, imparts an attribute to information in the process. The content is therefore changed by presentation.

In The Land of Accessibility and Sustainability, Presentation Is King

Let’s consider more practical implications of the importance of presentation.

Today's webmasters are well versed in a concept called "accessibility." Accessibility is largely a matter of presentation. It is the one area where presentation comes first. Accessibility cares not what the content is but how the content is presented.

For the uninitiated, accessibility is about making content on the web available for all, especially those with disabilities. Some people can't read small print. Some might need assistive technology to access a website such as a screen reader or voice recognition software for navigation.

One might say in the realm of accessibility, presentation is king. It is a fairly significant standard to live up to when designing a website. You must consider those that might be blind, hearing impaired and more. In fact, this is not merely a standard to live up to, but a requirement that must be adhered to, for many organizations. According to the W3C, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that people with disabilities have a right to access information and services via the Internet. Organizations and governments around the world are adopting that principle if they have not adopted it already. The principle demands a certain presentation.

The “going green” movement is another case where presentation is more than merely semantics. In fact, one could argue that the entire “going green” movement as it pertains to websites at least, is a matter of presentation first. The question becomes how can content be presented in a fashion that has minimal impact—a footprint if you will—on the environment? Should content be presented to encourage printing or simply made available as a PDF. At heart is the issue of using websites to promote sustainability and this is largely a question of presentation.

Yes, you may say that trumping content with presentation is not a wise thing to do. I won’t argue that. I only argue that to ignore presentation by trumping content is equally unwise.

Move over King Content. Queen Presentation would like her seat.