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At Purpose UX, we are more of an application design shop, but from time to time we do marketing sites. While some people think “it’s all just design,” I’ve found there to be significant differences in how to approach each type of project. Approaching a marketing site project like it’s an application design can get you blown up because of one major difference: The process for getting alignment from stakeholders.
For applications, you can usually put people in a room, do some collaborative design exercises and come out with a pretty good understanding of what the key features are, what the user journey should be, etc. And as the designs evolve, you can point back to those foundational points of agreement to manage conflicting feedback and keep things on track. In case of stakeholder impasse, user testing and customer insights can be brought in move decision-making forward.
With marketing sites, it’s much harder to avoid deadlock and keep that shared understanding in place (especially at larger organizations!) There are usually more stakeholders involved, they come from all across the company with significantly different needs and priorities, and it’s far more likely that the project gets sidetracked by stakeholder conflicts. There’s also a much higher risk of a new decision-maker stepping in later in the process and changing requirements or blowing up what you thought was an agreed-upon design. And because these sites often have more diverse audiences and more nebulous workflows, it’s often harder for research to break through and change the opinions of stakeholder who have strong feelings one way or the other.
Of course stick to best practices, build empathy for your users, run your collaborative workshops, and design your research backwards, but there’s a particular exercise I’ve found that really helps break through the noise and keep a website project grounded.
I call it The Skeleton Breakdown. (I first learned this technique from Denise Pasquinelli). It’s best to do this exercise after initial discovery to kickstart the design phase, then refer back to it as the design evolves.
The essential element is to have the “skeleton” side-by-side with the existing site so the content blocks line up. This lets you move between the high-level layout and the tactical design in a flexible and fluid way.
Stakeholders with different levels of comfort with web design projects can engage in the way that makes the most sense to them. I usually talk through the first few sections and model adding green and red notes, then give the group silent working time to add their own (~5 minutes can be enough time, but if they’re going strong, let them cook). Lead a discussion based on what people add, then repeat as needed. (TIP: have someone else available to transcribe the verbal discussions as visible notes so it’s all in one place).
In any case, the goal at the end of the session should be an agreed-upon draft skeleton to use as a base for your design work (or clearly-owned action items to get the team there if there needs to be more discussion / research / etc.)
When you present your design work, present it alongside the agreed-upon skeleton. Make it explicit whether feedback is about the high-level content layout (skeleton) vs. the tactical execution (wireframe). Take visible notes in the appropriate places!
Start with low-fidelity wireframes and move up to medium- and high-fidelity mockups, but always present with the skeleton & CTAs highlighted. I often use the same FigJam board so it’s easy to scroll up and reference specific bits of feedback or direction.
This helps triage feedback between layout-level (“We’ve got our blocks in the wrong order”) and block-level (“We’re not achieving our goal with this block”). It also keeps the team grounded in what the initial vision for the site was and why particular decisions were made.
So next time you’re designing a site, whether it’s Oct 31st or not, bring your skeleton!
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Also I’m on bluesky now: https://bsky.app/profile/ejexpress.bsky.social
