How to Define Each Book's Specific Customer Before Designing the Site
Short answer: before picking a template, colors, or menu structure, write down who that specific book's reader is, what question they're bringing when they arrive, and what they need to see in the first 5 seconds to trust they're in the right place.
The 3 questions that shape the design
What was this person searching for before arriving? The answer determines what the site's main headline should say.
What objection do they have before buying? That determines what information needs to be visible without scrolling.
What proof do they need to trust you? Reviews, author credentials, or a free sample — it varies by the book's topic.
Why designing first and defining the customer later gets expensive
When a site is designed before it's clear who it's speaking to, it's common to end up with a "pretty" but generic site that doesn't convert, requiring a full structural rebuild later — wasting the time invested in the original design.
How to apply this across a catalog with very different topics
If you manage several books across very different niches, repeat this exercise separately for each one. A technical book's reader and a novel's reader don't share the same objections or the same social proof — trying to design "one site that works for everyone" is exactly the mistake this exercise avoids.
Defining the specific customer before touching design is a standard principle of user-centered design: the design solves a known problem, not the other way around.
General user-centered design principle, 2026