What Is Top-Down Design?

Honestly, when you’re starting a website build, half the battle is just knowing where to kick things off. Do you start small and piece things together? Or do you map out the whole thing from the top and drill down?

After 20 years of building websites for all kinds of businesses—from scrappy startups to multi-million dollar ecommerce sites—I’ve seen both methods work. But I keep coming back to one: top-down design.

Here’s why.

Top-Down vs Bottom-Up (The Real-World Battle)

Both approaches have their place. It really depends on where you’re at.

• Top-Down: You map out the big picture first, then break it into smaller chunks.

• Bottom-Up: You start building small features or components, then connect them into a larger system.

For example, when I helped a client launch an e-commerce site back in 2018, we couldn’t afford to wing it. We had hundreds of products, multiple customer types, complex shipping rules — the works. Top-down saved us from drowning in details too early.

But when we refreshed a local law firm’s website last year? That was bottom-up. We kept most of their core pages, then fine-tuned contact forms, case study layouts, and a better blog system.

When Top-Down Design Just Makes Sense

I typically pull out top-down design for greenfield projects—stuff that’s brand new, or needs a proper structure from scratch.

It works best for:

• Full ecommerce builds (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento—you name it)

• Corporate sites with multiple departments and service lines

• Government portals (with tons of content categories)

• SaaS dashboards and platforms

Basically, anytime you need to control complexity before it controls you.

The Core Steps I Use (No Theories — Actual Steps)

When I sit down with a client, whether it’s on Zoom or face-to-face over coffee, this is the rough playbook I walk through:

1) Set The Big Goal

Before anything else: what are we actually building?

• Online store?

• Brochure website?

• Booking platform?

• Membership portal?

This defines the whole direction. No point picking colours if we don’t know who’s walking through the door.

2) Break Down Major Sections

Once the goal’s clear, I map out the site skeleton:

• Homepage

• Product/Service pages

• Blog or resources

• Contact and enquiry pages

• Login or client portals (if needed)

I’ll usually sketch this out on a whiteboard or Figma. Nothing fancy—just boxes and arrows.

3) Subdivide the Pieces

Then I go deeper. The homepage might break into:

• Hero banner

• Call to action

• Featured products or services

• Testimonials

• Footer with contact info

Each section becomes its own mini-project.

4) Always Prioritise User Experience

At this stage, I shift hats and start thinking like the visitor:

• Can they find what they need in 3 clicks?

• Is the navigation logical?

• Are the CTAs (calls-to-action) obvious and helpful?

I use real tools here—like Hotjar heatmaps or simple user testing—to catch friction points early.

5) Detail The Components

Now comes the pixel-level stuff:

• Typography (Google Fonts? Custom?)

• Colour schemes (brand guidelines or build fresh?)

• Image styles (stock photos? custom shoots?)

• Interactive elements (hover states, animations, forms)

Why I Still Favour Top-Down (Even After 20 Years)

Honestly, it just works. Here’s why I keep coming back to it:

• Keeps everyone aligned. Clients, designers, devs—everyone’s rowing in the same direction.

• Reduces overwhelm. Breaking big tasks into smaller bits makes them way less scary.

• Predictable timelines. I can spot bottlenecks early and avoid nasty surprises late in the build.

• Easier to swap pieces out. You can update a section without breaking the whole system.

Quick Reality Check

Look—I’m not saying bottom-up is bad. If you’re rebuilding just the checkout flow on Shopify? Bottom-up is your friend.

But if you’re launching a brand-new multi-page company site? Top-down saves your bacon.