I know how to build the playground websites. The ones where you can drag items around, where things follow your cursor, where every scroll triggers something unexpected and delightful. I’ve learned how to do it. I’ve chosen not to use most of it.
Impressive and effective are different things, and the gap between them is where a lot of websites fail to do their actual job.
Your website has one job (and it’s not impressing web designers)
A website exists to convert. That’s it. That’s the whole job.
Not to win design awards. Not to impress other designers. Not to demonstrate the full range of technical things you’ve learned how to do. To make the person who lands on it understand what you offer, feel something about you specifically, and take an action (an enquiry, a booking, a purchase, a download, something that moves the relationship forward).
Everything on your website should be evaluated against that job. Does this element help someone understand what I do? Does it make them more likely to reach out or less? Does it add to the experience of being on this site, or does it create friction?
The wow effect is a nice-to-have. It can support the job when it’s done well and for the right audience. It becomes the problem when it becomes the point, a.k.a. when the design decision was made because it looks cool rather than because it serves the person on the other end.
Clients don’t pay their bills with the WOW effect
There’s a version of web design where the goal is a beautiful portfolio piece. The designer wants to showcase what they can do — technically, aesthetically, conceptually — and the client’s website becomes the vehicle for that.
I understand the impulse. Building something impressive feels good. It’s satisfying to push what you know and have something to point at.
But a website that gets built to impress other designers is not the same as a website built to convert actual clients. The audience is completely different. The success metric is completely different. And when those two things get confused (when a designer prioritises what will look good in their portfolio over what will work for the person who hired them) the client ends up with something that wins compliments from creatives and confuses their actual customers.
My job is to get my clients booked. Not to have a nice portfolio piece at their expense.
The baby boomer who did not need a website that follows his cursor
Let me give you a concrete example of how audience shapes every single decision on a website.
I recently built a website for a life coach whose clients are primarily baby boomers and Gen X — people navigating significant life transitions, often in difficult moments. They come to him because something is hard and they need help.
What does that person need when they land on his website? They need to feel like they’re in the right place. They need to understand quickly whether he can help with the specific thing they’re dealing with. They need to trust him enough to reach out, which requires clarity and warmth, not spectacle.
What they do not need: draggable elements. Cursor effects. Sections that require interaction to reveal content. Animations that move fast enough to be disorienting. Any feature that prioritises novelty over immediate comprehension.
I could have built something that would have made other designers stop scrolling. I built something his clients can actually use — on their phones, in their fifties and sixties, possibly in a hard moment, looking for someone to help. Clean layout. Readable type. Clear navigation. Warmth in the copy and imagery. A contact process that isn’t a puzzle.
His clients don’t care what the website can do. They care whether he can help. The website’s job is to answer that question as clearly and quickly as possible, and then get out of the way.
If you’re curious, you can check it out here (it’s in Italian tho lol)
Just because you can animate it doesn’t mean you should
Animation on websites isn’t inherently bad. Movement draws the eye, adds life to a page, and can make the experience of scrolling through a site feel more engaging than static content. I use it on my own website. The difference is intentionality and restraint.
Animation works when it enhances the content without obscuring it. When it loads reliably on mobile. When it doesn’t require the user to do anything unexpected in order to access the information they came for. When someone who doesn’t notice the animation still has a complete, functional experience of the page.
Animation becomes a problem when the content is only accessible through the animation — when text lives inside a scroll-triggered reveal that doesn’t load properly on some devices, or when interactive elements require a level of dexterity or attention that not everyone has. It’s a problem when it slows the page down to the point where people leave before it finishes loading. And it’s a significant problem when it doesn’t work on mobile at all, which is where a large percentage of your audience is.
A broken animation isn’t just a missed wow moment. It’s content your visitor couldn’t access, in the middle of a first impression that was supposed to make them want to hire you.
The question to ask before every design decision
Not “does this look cool?” Not “will other designers be impressed by this?” Not “is this trending right now?”
Does this help the person I’m building this for? Does it make their experience clearer, warmer, easier to navigate? Does it move them toward the thing they came here to do?
If yes — great, put it in. If the honest answer is “it makes the portfolio look better” — that’s useful information, but it’s not a reason to include something in a client’s website. You can showcase your technical range in your own space, on your own terms, for an audience that came specifically to see what you can do.
Your clients hired you to help them sell their thing. The website is in service of that. The wow effect can come along for the ride when it contributes to that goal and not before.
Need a website that prioritises clarity over gimmicks?
If you’re tired of wondering whether your website is actually helping people take action — or if it currently feels more like an online brochure than a business tool — that’s exactly the kind of thing I help with.
I design strategic websites that balance personality, usability, and conversion, so your visitors can focus on what matters: understanding what you do and feeling confident enough to reach out.
If that sounds like what your business needs, you can learn more about my website design services here.
