Design, writing and meaning

"Think like a writer," said Craig Cook in a post on his blog, A List Apart. Interestingly, he was speaking to web designers.

"Presentational thinking," he said, "leads to presentational web design, to the detriment of your content." In other words, if you are worried only about how your design looks instead of how it opens access to the content, how it supports the meaning of the content, then you aren't doing it right.

Writers deal with meaning in all they do. Some designers, however, think of design as sort of a cosmetic add-on to something already created, with little regard to what the content is all about. This creates a less-than-optimum product. As I have been saying -- nay, preaching -- for nearly 20 years is that the best information product integrates writing and presentation (design) with the reader in mind -- as always.

Designers shouldn’t think like writers – writers and designers should thinking like communicators – those interested in meaning transfer. Isn't that what communication is all about?