The invisible website: Designing for journeys you'll never see

We used to map user journeys like train tracks, from homepage to service page to contact us form. Predictable, linear, carefully designed.

But AI doesn't follow your sitemap. It builds it's own journey.

If you're still designing websites around the idea that users will land on your homepage and click their way through menus, you're designing for a world that's disappearing fast.

AI search is quietly changing how people find and use your content. They're not visiting your site, they're being served your content, sometimes without even knowing where it came from.

This is the invisible website and it's already here.

AI is the new browser

Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews are answering your users questions directly, sometimes pulling bits from five different sites and assembling them into one response.

If someone searches "What do I need to register a food business in NZ?", AI might serve them:

• A checklist from one site

• Fees and timelines from another

• A downloadable form from yours

They may never see your homepage. Or your menu. Or your lovely hero image.

This means your job isn't to guide them through your site.

It's to make sure your content shows up wherever their journey happens.

Anticipate, don't direct

Historian and futurist Yuval Noah Harari calls this the end of the "destination-based web browsing." AI isn't just answering questions, it's anticipating what comes next.

If someone asks about tenancy agreements, AI might also suggest:

• A bond calculator

• A sample agreement

• Advice for ending a lease

This is a major shift.

We're moving from designing a flow to supporting a flow we don't control.

What does this mean for UX and digital teams?

It means:

• Stop designing around fixed paths

• Start designing around questions and next steps

• Break content into standalone blocks AI can mix and match

• Focus less on layout, more on logic and clarity

It's a mindset shift. One that prioritises usefulness over appearance.

At Paadia, we help teams think beyond the frame of a webpage. Because the future of UX is less about interface, and more about intervention. Getting the right answer to the right person at the right moment, even if they never land on your site.

Don't just design websites. Design answers.

If your organisation is still focused on homepage hero images and visual redesigns, this is your sign to pause. Are you designing journeys for humans? Or are you enabling journeys powered by AI?

My main message?

Users don't need your homepage. They need answers. And AI is already stitching together invisible journeys from the fragments you publish. You can either fight it, or design for it.

What if the most important user journey on your site didn't start on your site?