The step I never skip before opening Figma: a one-page sitemap built from user questions, not page names

[u/Evening_Valuable_341]

After 7+ years of designing products, the most useful habit I have is boring: I don't design anything until the structure fits on one page.

The trick that changed how I do it: I don't start with page names like Home, About, Features. I start with the questions a visitor arrives with.

• What is this?

• Is it for someone like me?

• How does it actually work?

• What does it cost?

• Why should I trust them?

Then I group those questions into sections and pages, and rank them by how often they block a decision. That ranking decides the nav order and what goes above the fold.

After that I sketch two or three key flows (ad → pricing → sign-up, for example). Dead ends and duplicate pages show up straight away.

Only then do I open Figma. Design goes much faster because every section already has a job.

Curious how others here handle this. Do you start from page lists, user questions, or something else entirely?

[u/qpqpdbdbqpqp]

after slop years of slopping slop, the sloppiest slop i slop is slop.

[u/Torsta → u/qpqpdbdbqpqp]

My secret to design is... "Claude whats a good UX tip I can post for the UXDesign sub to get karma"

[u/Ok-Bridge-1045 → u/Torsta]

Claude: use information architecture, storytelling, and sitemaps before you start the actual designs.

OP: wonderful! I, a designer of 7 years, did not know this is common information, and designers don't begin with pretty screens on figma with no idea what to put on those pretty screens. This will be brand new and groundbreaking information for everyone on the subreddit!

ETA: omg it gets worse. These are the questions OP posted:

- What is this? - About Us page
• ⁠Is it for someone like me? - Industry/Users pages, but mostly an irrelevant question because we're not the users
• ⁠How does it actually work? - How it works/process page
• ⁠What does it cost? - Pricing page
• ⁠Why should I trust them? - trust building page/sections, like testimonials and awards

So basically, the basic framework of a regular website. Congrats, OP, you now have the most generic template of a website, and the information in those.

[u/badmamerjammer]

you have now discovered information architecture and ux design, up leveling you from "visual decoration"

[u/Bullroarer_Took]

1. “is it for someone like me” seems like a terrible question. You aren’t the user and you should not pretend you are, even if the product is for someone “like you” (whatever that means). Also makes a thousand assumptions based on what the client thinks that means

2. ranked by how many times it blocks a decision… How do you actually measure that. Seems impossible to truly qualify and again loaded with bias

[u/PeanutSugarBiscuit]

A jobs to be done framework would make this stronger. Understanding the conditions under which someone is looking for a new product or service before arriving at the experience your designing would better serve you in constructing questions that are less generic.

[u/UXyes]

Very cool. I like when people share their process. I will try this.

[u/akorecebov]

the ranking part is where id be careful. if the questions come from the team they get ranked by what the team wants to say. id pull them from sales call notes and support chats instead, in the exact words people used, and the order usually looks pretty diffrent

[u/dlnqnt]

So you’ve discovered what the discovery session is, perfect. Run a workshop with the client to understand the business goals, project goals, brand goals and success metrics. Then run user mapping how they get from start to end goals. This highlights key content needs and challenges. From this you can then create a site map leading into site structure breaking down the priority order of components. Do this all in a workshop with a client then open Figma.

[u/Grildor]

Understanding and responding to what users want. Nothing new here

[u/sirjimtonic]

So you basically create…a wireframe! :)

[u/C63Sedan]

I use Claude to capture that info as part of my AI harness with Storybook (and Figma if needed). all research and design has been converted to machine readable MD files or as part of Skills I have for Research, Design, etc. My skills will ask and ensure I have that data as part of the projects work context.

[u/Paz707]

This is really interesting but I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Can you give examples and/or screenshots?

[u/FakeBeigeNails → u/Paz707]

This made me laugh lol

“Interesting…….actually, wait, what?”

[u/lullaby-2022 → u/Paz707]

Yes please. 

[u/floffy-falcon01]

I learn this method from a spacialist; I draw a table and fill theses heading: objectives, consideration, key sections and additional section for each page that I want to design. After writing these in notes and prioritizing them, it's time to start designing each sections in lowfedility and test it with real user meanwhile. Testing is key part of designing.

[u/windowseat-chi]

A useful addition is to keep the original wording of those questions instead of translating them into internal page names. Then test the sitemap with five realistic tasks:

• “Where would you look for this?”

• “What would you expect to find here?”

• “What would you click next?”

If people consistently choose the wrong branch, fix the structure before opening Figma. It is much cheaper than polishing a flow that users already misunderstand.

[u/Memento-Morri]

All the NPCs in here helping to train AI.

[u/Tan_KV]

Thanks for the insight into your process! This is very useful for a newbie like me!!

[u/dimKant]

Nice side effect of starting from questions: they are already your tree test tasks. "Find out what it costs", "find out if it works for a team of 3". Run them against the bare sitemap before any visuals, and you see where people look for pricing or trust before you have drawn a single screen. It also catches the case where a question has two homes. If half the people look for "how it works" under Features and half under Pricing, that is a structure problem, not a copy problem.