Designing with Intention: How to Build Websites That Truly Work

August 26, 2025

No matter how flashy your website is, it’s never going to be a great website unless you put intention behind it. Every single little element should serve a purpose on your website. From the layout to the imagery, every single decision should guide the visitor towards the right action.

Different types of websites have different goals. Some to raise money, others to get you to sign up. If you design without intention, you’ll never get your visitors to convert, potentially losing credibility.

Below, let’s go over some of the website types and their core elements

Ecommerce

It’s designed to sell a product or services online. It needs clear navigation, product, pages and a good checkout flow.

Layout

• a hero with featured products or deals
• a product catalog
• individual product pages
• a cart and checkout process
• policies, testimonials, secure payment

Blog

Designed for content and focuses on articles, insights or storytelling. It’s a perfect choice for personal brands and niche communities.

Layout

• a clean homepage with recent posts
• categories for browsing
• posts and comments
• sidebar for newsletter, popular posts or ads
• an authio bio section

News

On this site, we are looking for fast-moving updates, breaking news. We need to prioritize speed, readability, and credibility.

Layout

• Top headlines/ breaking news ticker
• Featured stories section
• category navigation (sports, world, business)
• multimedia support - videos, images, galleries
• ads and subscription prompts

Marketing

Its sole purpose is to showcase a company’s services or products to capture leads.

Layout

• hero with value proposition and a CTA
• about/company story
• services and or product feature
• testimonials/ case studies
• contact form or CTA footer

Web Application

It should be a tool-driven website where the interface is more important than the static pages

Layout

• login/signup page
• dashboard
• sidebar or navbar
• functional modules
• profile and settings

Wiki/ knowledge Base

This site should be an informational repository with interconnected pages. These are great websites for FAQs, documentation or open knowledge.

Layout

• Search Bar front and center
• category/topic navigation
• article pages with internal links
• revision history

Agency

The primary goal is to showcase expertise, past work, and credibility. The whole website should be persuasive and design-driven.

Layout

• hero with positioning statement
• Services offered
• portfolio/case studies
• tesimonials
• booking/ contact form

Magazine

This is a website focused on editorials with a stylish presentation that doesn’t take away from the long-form reading and visuals

Layout

• Bold home page with featured stories
• categories
• article layouts that have big imagery and typography
• author sections
• subscriptions/ newsletter CTA

Portfolio

Showcases an individual’s or team creative work. It needs to be clean with beautiful visuals

Layout

• Hero with tagling/ introduction
• portfolio/ projects
• individual case studies
• about/skills page
• contact form

Directory

Organizes businesses, services, or resources in a browsable format

Layout

• search bar and filters
• listings grid of list view
• individual listing pages with details
• map integration
• user reviews

SaaS

website for a software-as-a-service product. The goal is conversions: signups, demos, free trials, etc.

Layout

• hero with a strong value prop and CTA
• product features and benefits
• screenshots or video demos
• pricing table
• testimonials
• signup form

Government

Public service-focused that offers citizens resources, policies and tools. It needs to be accessible and show trustworthiness.

Layout

• clear homepage with top tasks that citizens as for
• departmental navigation
• announcements
• searchable resources and forms
• accessibility features

intentional design means you are aligning form with function. Every single layout decision should support the site’s goal.

When you design with intention, you’ll not only make your site look better, you’ll find better conversion.