I've been thinking a lot lately about how we approach websites. We spend countless hours designing homepages, landing pages, and portfolios, obsessing over every pixel, every hover state, every bit of visual flair. But who are we really designing for? 

If we’re honest, it’s not for customers. It’s for our peers. We’re trying to impress other designers, people in the industry, folks who judge us based on aesthetics rather than substance. And in the process, we’ve lost sight of what a website is actually for: communication.

A website should be a conduit for conversation, not a digital brochure. It’s not a static thing to be looked at, admired, and left alone. It’s a tool—a way for businesses to share ideas, engage with customers, and build relationships. Yet so many websites are built like monuments. Beautiful, yes, but unchanging, cold, and ultimately disconnected from the people they’re supposed to serve.

Look at blogs. They don’t win design awards, but they get read. They create engagement. Why? Because they’re updated. They’re alive. They’re not trying to impress—they’re just trying to communicate. That’s the point. And that’s where most websites fall short.

The problem with static design

When I land on most homepages, I feel like I’m looking at a well-designed brochure. It’s slick, it’s polished, and it’s…done. There’s no room for conversation, no space for change. It’s there to impress, not to connect.

But customers don’t want to be impressed—they want to be understood. They want access to real, human conversations. That’s why people gravitate towards blogs, forums, social media channels, and other places where there’s actual dialogue. Static design misses the point because it prioritizes aesthetics over substance. It’s a snapshot, not a story.

Websites should be letters, not brochures

So here’s a radical idea: What if we started treating websites more like letters to our visitors?

Think about it. When you write a letter, you’re talking directly to someone. You’re sharing ideas, thoughts, and updates in a way that’s personal and meaningful. That’s how websites should be—simple, direct, and focused on communication. Forget the fancy visuals. Focus on making the website feel alive, a place where real things are happening, and people are actively sharing.

This doesn’t mean you abandon design entirely. But the design should serve the message, not the other way around. It should help the conversation happen, not overshadow it.

Let your team do the talking

Another piece of this puzzle: your employees should be involved. A company isn’t just a logo and a product—it’s a group of people with ideas, insights, and stories to share. They should be writing blog posts, making videos, contributing to the conversation. 

You don’t need to hire a full-time content team. You just need to empower the people who are already there. Let them share their work, their thoughts, their learnings. That’s how you build trust. That’s how you build relationships. Not by creating more polished marketing copy, but by letting your team show up as real people with real perspectives.

Build relationships, not websites

At the end of the day, the goal of a website shouldn’t be to impress—it should be to connect. It should help you build real, human relationships with your audience. The design should be a backdrop, not the star of the show.

So let’s stop treating websites like digital brochures, static and unchanging. Let’s start treating them like letters—living, breathing conversations that grow over time. Because that’s where the real value lies: not in how good your website looks, but in how well it communicates.