---
type: Content Design Concept
title: Message Model
description: User intent, message hierarchy, first-screen clarity, content order, and decision paths.
tags: [content, message, information-architecture, first-screen]
---

# Purpose

Use this concept before designing pages, screens, graphics, reports, dashboards, and landing pages with meaningful content.

# Model

Good design is structured communication:

- Content defines meaning.
- Copy guides understanding.
- Typography shapes reading.
- UI enables action.
- Visual design directs attention.
- Frontend implementation preserves accessibility and consistency.

# Rules

- Start from user intent and business intent.
- Define what the user must know before deciding or acting.
- Order content by the user's decision path, not by internal organization.
- First screen should answer: what this is, why it matters, what the user can do next, why it is credible, and what happens after action.
- Put risk, trust, cost, or consequence information close to the decision point.
- Remove repeated, slogan-like, or internal-facing content.
- Use progressive disclosure for advanced, low-frequency, or high-detail content.

# Signals

- Too little content: users ask what this is, what happens next, or why they should trust it.
- Too much content: first screen is dense, CTA is buried, or repeated modules say the same thing.
- Wrong order: company story or implementation detail appears before user value and decision information.
- Hard terminology: users reread, hesitate, or misuse controls.

# Contract Fields

Record:

- User intent.
- Message hierarchy.
- First-screen answers.
- Decision path.
- Trust, risk, and help content.
- Content assumptions and open questions.
