Regardless on why you have a website, the term “Causality” plays a very important roll. The idea of “If you build it, they will come” has failed more than it has succeeded. A quote from Scientific Magazine in the July 2008 edition describes causality as this:

What is Causality?

Causality is the principle that events occur in a specific temporal sequence of cause and effect, rather than as a haphazard jumble.

Keyword in the quote here is “haphazard”. Applying causality to a website, the design of the site would be the formal cause. The effect is the what the visitor gains from the site. As a website owner, the cause is building the site, and the effect is the actions the visitors take on the site. Awareness of this is a  must when designing a site. It is also why having a business plan is so important for a website because in a business plan the effects are clearly defined. So should the cause.

By clearly defining the effects that you want for yourself as the site owner, and the effects that you want your visitors to experience,  your site design should become intuitive. Navigation will be concise, clutter will be eliminated, and the user experience enhanced. Design with a specific cause, and the effect will come!