The Power of Why

One of the most powerful words in the English language, in my opinion, is why. Why leads us to find answers to our questions and curiosities. It helps us figure out what we need versus what we want, and it makes us think deeper about our choices.

When it comes new websites, I ask Why a lot, and sometimes people find that surprising. The first question:

Why do you want a website?

This may seem like a bad question for me to ask, considering that I make my living by making people’s websites. I shouldn’t care about why they want it, only that they hire me to make it right?

Wrong. Not every website is a good idea. Not every website is going to be successful. So the very first question I want to know is why you want a website. What goals do you have that a website will help fulfill? Having a website isn’t a goal, it’s a pathway to a goal.

If you are a writer, then your goal may be to sell more of your books. Having a website can help you promote your book. It makes sense to have a website for that purpose. Your goal isn’t to have a website, it’s to sell more books and your website is a marketing arm of that goal.

If your first thought is, “I have a business and everyone says I need a website,” then we need to talk about why that is and if it’s true. It may be true. If you are hiring a professional web design company to build you a website for you, then you should probably know why and have a clear goal in mind.

Web Design Whys

Then when it comes to design, we ask a lot of why questions. Everyone has opinions on what they want for their website, but sometimes those wants are not inline with their goals, so we ask why.

• Why do you want the logo bigger?
• Why do you want this color or that color?
• Why do you want a slider?
• Why do you want this content here?
• Why do you want a video?
• Why do you want something here or there?

When it comes to web design, the keyword here is design.

Everything you do on a website is By Design

What that means is that the design of your website is so much more than how it looks. Yes, how it looks is important and it’s part of the design. But design means more. It means thinking about how the site will be used. It means planning the site with strategy and intention with goals in mind.

The answer to any design decision should never be, “Because they asked for it.” This sentence makes me absolutely insane.

Any good architect will ask you why you want this feature or that feature before they add it to your house. They aren’t just going to make you anything you want just because you ask for it.

An architect doesn’t just want your house to be beautiful, they want it to be functional. And your website works the exact same way.

Asking WHY is one of the most important parts of having a great website designed, and often a forgotten question. Why should drive every aspect of your website’s design and development.