In every plan for every endeavor, setting objectives is quintessential. Plotting the goals the endeavor is working towards gives you direction, and sets the theme for your actions and decisions. This is also true for website design. In planning and designing a website, you still need to set your objectives.

Website design doesn’t start with actually designing the aesthetics or the structure of the website, but begins in its conception. And in the phase of conceptualizing a website, objectives need to be set. What is the website for? Is it for personal use; for a hobby or career growth? Is it for social or humanitarian purposes, like promoting charity foundations? Is it for promoting a business, or like many other websites today, is it established to generate income from monetization tools? The answer to that first question dictates what direction you’ll be going. For instance, the site is for generating income. The feel of the site then should be a mixture of informal and professional—informal when it comes to the entertaining aspects of the site and professional when it comes to the marketing and business aspect. Several other aesthetic and structural website design factors are determined by the set objective/s. Which fonts or font families will be used? An array of different font types can create an array of different effects. Will graphics or animation be used? How much graphics and animation can be stuffed into the site safely without causing it to load slowly? These things and more all depend on the objectives.

Ever come across one of the countless personal homepages in the Web that tells you the webmaster’s name, age, address, other uninteresting stuff you don’t need to know, and the only picture present is his pet parrot? That’s a website with no objective, no reason to exist. Don’t let you website be like that.