As for sliders, I still think they can be pretty useful, as long as they have a well designed UI, can be instantly scrolled through manually by the user (particularly back to one that just went past), preferably in both directions, and in carousel (i.e. the end and start loop round to one another), and ideally, you can see the volume of slides (perhaps on hover), and where you’re up to in the loop.

As for modals… those obtrusive, browser hijacking, tactical warfare ones that pounce on your face and force you with undesirable ultimatums or cold-call marketing and requests – they are probably among the worst web-interaction experiences I can think of, and I often find myself having to developer-tools-hack them away to access website content without interacting with them in the way they want me to. Though, I do acknowledge that in some ‘user-initiated’ scenarios, they can be useful for revealing hidden away tools or information that would not be appropriate to show all the time. For example, additional small snippets of information, an brief submission form or control interface, or what-have-you, though I would be very careful to determine that this was the ideal method for delivering such content or tools, and I would most likely lean toward it NOT being ideal.

As for the point about content first… as a designer and developer, I would say it really has to depend on a lot of factors – some of which you’ve eluded to. I feel like most often the existing or planned content should ideally inform elements of the design, and possibly in the reverse. Though mostly, the design of the site would be intended to ‘support’ whatever content the website may start with or end up with at any point… and preferably define the rules for what type of content should and may be created and how… though more in an informative sense, than necessarily a limiting sense. The design should ideally set the scene for any content that may be created, and preferably inform or assist content creators with the process, where appropriate. To suggest that it’s always going to be a ‘content first’ approach, however, seems somehow based toward the content creation perspective or role, and somehow naiive. Sometimes a website may be designed to have rapidly changing or unexpected content, or perhaps the content is particularly non-visual or unpredictable in nature. Who can say, and that’s the point I’m getting at… there’s myriad types of website and design process, where you can’t just go and say, “Content first, always”, I feel.

I have to say I agree with most of the other points on the article though – well done, and a useful read. =)

That’s certainly just one guy’s 2019 opinion, but one I feel super strongly about.