Working Notes: Great websites are goal-oriented
A short and useful newsletter for people who look after websites.
Working Notes: #1
Marc Jenkins · 4th December, 2025
I was recently chatting to Erik Kennedy, a great designer and writer. He was giving me some feedback on The Website Redesign Handbook that I've been working on for the past couple of months.
In the Handbook, there's a section about the principles of great websites. Erik pointed out I'd missed one: great websites know exactly what their goal is.
It sounded too obvious.
I sat with it for a while and realised he's right. So many websites get this wrong.
So I've added a new principle: Great websites are goal-oriented.
A website should have a primary goal. What's the most important thing you want it to achieve? A sale? A donation? A signup? Being crystal clear on what the goal is makes it easier to write content, design each page, and get the action you want.
Have a read and let me know what you think.
I'll be sending this newsletter at the start of every month, meaning this is my last email before Christmas and New Year. (How is it that time already?)
Have a lovely break and see you in January,
Marc
What I've been reading
A guide published by Wikipedia on identifying AI-generated content. It's full of interesting tidbits, e.g. "the LLM tends to omit specific, unusual, nuanced facts (which are statistically rare) and replace them with more generic, positive descriptions (which are statistically common)".
Our take on the future of search: SEO, GEO, and beyond
An interesting read on how SEO is changing as AI reshapes search habits. It aligns with my own views on the importance of great content: "Even during this search evolution, our data suggests that users gravitate to high-quality content from sites they trust. [...] Readers want to go deeper and follow authentic, trusted experts, not generic AI slop."
Anil Dash articulates what I've been thinking about AI: LLMs are useful tools, but they're over-hyped, and the forced adoption while dismissing valid critiques is frustrating. His key point? Many professionals feel this way but won't say it publicly for fear of career consequences.
I've been struggling with some of the design choices Apple made in Safari on iOS 26, so I enjoyed Thomas' tongue-in-cheek guide to designing for Liquid Glass. I agree with his advice: don't compromise your site to fix Apple's questionable design choices.