The psychology behind this day
Separation of Concerns (Making Websites Win, Ch. 6): Blanks and Jesson's architectural principle — every element on a page should serve one purpose. When a page tries to sell, educate, build trust, and capture leads simultaneously, it does none well. Separate the concerns: this section builds trust, this section creates understanding, this section prompts action. Clarity of purpose at the section level creates clarity of experience for the visitor.
Page Purpose (UX for Business, Ch. 8): Marsh's principle — before designing any page, answer one question: "What is this page's job?" A homepage's job is to answer "what is this, and should I stay?" A pricing page's job is to make the decision easy. An about page's job is to answer "who are these people and can I trust them?" When you can't articulate the job in one sentence, the page has no focus and the visitor has no path.
Homepage Requirements (Don't Make Me Think, Ch. 7): Krug lists the specific things a homepage must communicate: what is this site? What can I do here? What do they have here? Why should I be here and not somewhere else? And show me where to start. Every homepage that fails to answer these questions in the first scroll is a homepage that leaks visitors.
Before you plan a website — ask: is a website even your first priority?
Not every business needs a website as their primary digital presence. A psychotherapist in a residential neighbourhood whose clients find them through Google Maps needs a killer GBP listing before they need a website. A tattoo artist whose bookings come from Instagram DMs needs a polished Instagram portfolio before they need a domain. A local bakery whose foot traffic comes from walk-ins needs signage and a Google listing with photos and reviews before anything else.
The question isn't "should I build a website?" — it's "where do my customers look first, and is that touchpoint optimised?" For many local, service-based, or appointment-driven businesses, the Google Business Profile (Day 15) is the highest-impact asset, and the website is secondary support. For B2B, e-commerce, SaaS, or any business where customers research before buying, the website is central and needs to be planned properly.
Today's exercise works for both paths — it's about structuring whatever your primary digital presence is.
The Lesson
Before you design a single page, you need to know what pages you need, what each page's job is, and what the visitor's journey looks like from landing to buying.
Every page should have a single primary purpose. A homepage's job is to answer "what is this, and should I stay?" A pricing page's job is to make the decision easy. An about page's job is to answer "who are these people and can I trust them?"
When a page tries to do too many things, it does none of them well.
Today's Exercise
- List every page your website needs. For most businesses: Homepage, About, Services/Work, Pricing (if applicable), Contact, Blog/Insights (optional for launch).
- For each page, write ONE sentence describing its job. What should the visitor do or feel after this page?
- Map the visitor's journey: Where do they land? Where do they go next? Where do they convert? There should be a clear path, not a maze.
- For your homepage specifically, sketch (words only, not design) what goes in each section. Use the four-step framework: does the page help them find what they need, trust you, understand your offer, and feel safe to take the next step?
AI-Assisted (Copywriting & UX folder)
"You are a UX architect who uses usability research and conversion psychology to plan website structures.
My business: [business type] My ideal customer (from Day 8): [paste your customer profile] My positioning (from Day 9): [paste your Blue Ocean positioning or key differentiator] How most customers currently find me: [Google, Instagram, referrals, walk-ins, etc.]
Using the UX and website structure principles in this project — particularly Krug's homepage requirements, Marsh's page purpose principle, and Blanks & Jesson's separation of concerns — do the following step by step:
1. Tell me what pages I need (and don't need at launch). For each page, state its single job in one sentence. 2. Map the visitor's journey from landing to conversion. Where do they enter? What do they need to see in what order? Where do they convert? 3. Outline my homepage sections in order. For each section, explain: what it does psychologically (which step of Find → Trust → Understand → Buy it serves), and what content belongs there. 4. Flag any structural mistakes you'd expect for my type of business — common patterns that hurt conversion.
Format: Give me a sitemap as a numbered list (page name + one-sentence job), then the homepage outline as a section-by-section breakdown.
Before you answer, ask me questions about what services/products I need to feature, whether I need a pricing page, and what my primary conversion action is (book a call, buy now, fill a form, etc.)."
This is the first time the Copywriting & UX folder does structural work rather than copy work. The UX books in that folder (Krug, Yablonski, Marsh, Blanks & Jesson) are what it draws from here.
Output: A sitemap with page purposes and a homepage section outline.