Begin with the visitor’s task

A visitor arrives with a question. They may want to see relevant work, understand a service or find out how to start a conversation. List the questions your website needs to answer before deciding how many sections it should have.

Make the next step clear

A page can offer several routes while still having one primary action. Describe that action in familiar language and place it after the information a person needs to decide. Repeating a clear contact route is useful when the page is long; repeating the same sales message is less useful.

A website structure is a sequence of answers.

Questions worth asking

• What brought this person here?

• What evidence will help them decide?

• What should happen after they click?

Plan for the people maintaining it

Content changes after launch. Choose CMS fields that reflect the way the team works, and test the layout with different image ratios and longer titles. A system that only looks good with the original demo content will soon become difficult to maintain.

Motion can clarify relationships and provide feedback, but the essential information should remain accessible without it. Start with a readable page, then add movement where it helps.