Form and content - the two pillars of design

Form and content are the two fundamental parts of design that has to work in harmony with each other to deliver the very purpose they were created. Form and content are like the two wheels of a bicycle  where the front wheel is used to control the direction of the bicycle and the back wheel is used to propel the vehicle forward. So form and content have to work cohesively to create a effective experience for its user. So in this article we are going to see what is form, what is content and their purposes with some examples and the reason why they both need to work together with some practical and relatable examples.

What is Content

Content is the message that has to be delivered to the audience through a design. Basically that defines the purpose of why the design was created. Content can be of any type. It can be a text, image, audio, video or a combination of all of these elements.

What is Form

Form decides how the content is delivered to the audience. In design form consists of placement, shape, color, size, texture and many other elements that influences the visual impact it creates on its viewers and what type of emotions it evokes in their mind. Form is essential to create the necessary engagement with its audience.

Relationship between form and content

The relationship between form and content is like the relationship between Eddie Brock and venom from the spiderman universe; if either of one dies the other one also dies. They should co-exist to survive and to be successful. If either form or content is lacking, the overall effectiveness of the design will suffer.

Form without Content: A visually attractive design but has no message to deliver will lack depth and will fail ultimately. People may argue that it will attract attention, but it will be just only an early success and when the audience realize that it fails to engage or provide value the failure of the design is undeniable.

An example of the above would be imagine you go to a movie looking at the poster of it, but if the movie has nothing interesting or gripping or engaging then obviously the audience will either leave the movie theatre or start looking into their phones. Even if they watch the movie for the money they spent, they will not give a good review about it or recommend it to their friends to watch. So eventually the movie will be a disaster after a good opening day.

Content without Form: A design with a great message but a poor visual presentation will be difficult to reach the audience. The lack of visual appeal will make the audience to think that it is a poor product and it has nothing to deliver so obviously nobody will even make an effort to go beyond a glance. Only when they go through it they will know the valuable information it has in it but even when the design doesn't even convinces them to give it a chance then failure of the design becomes inevitable.

Imagine a song has great lyrics but does not has great music equivalent to the lyrics what will happen? First of people listen to songs to relax or to enjoy. So first the music in the song should be enjoyable by its listeners. If that is not delivered who is going to proceed listening to the song and know about the lyrics. So just like the first scenario here also failure becomes its fate.

The goal is to achieve a balance between form and content, where each enhances and compliments the other. 

By understanding the interplay between form and content and striving for a harmonious balance, designers can create designs that are both visually appealing and effective in achieving their intended goals.

But still there are situations where either the form or content has to overtake the other one, as a wiseman said for every rule there are multiple exceptions. For example a real estate exhibition is happening and there are lots of stalls displaying their plots and apartments. There is an attractive stall with grand led displays with well groomed representatives. There is also another stall which very basic with representatives wearing simple clothes. Which one do you think is going to attract more visitors. For sure the attractive one. Not only in terms of attracting more visitors even in converting those visitors into prospects and customers is going to be the attractive stall. You know why, because this attractive gimmick of theirs will create a sense of trust and credibility among the prospects and that will convince them to purchase real estate from them even if they charge an exorbitant price.