As stated earlier, altars can be of the simplest design; a place set aside containing as few as one element. Generally, though, people use the opportunity of altar building as a tableau to feature multiple elements. Modern usage of altars can be separated into two categories: décor altars, and working altars. Décor altars are depositories for personally meaningful items, often gifted, found or purchased by loved ones. These structures tend to grow in an organic way, evolving as the keeper does in complexity and character. Working altars are created with purpose and intention as a place where time will be spent in a focused way. These are often created and maintained according to a tradition learned or created. Examples of these are the home altars of some cultures, as Kay Turner writes in Beautiful Necessity: The Art And Meaning Of Women's Altars (1999), "...domestic altars is a very old tradition practiced for thousands of years by women of different religious beliefs the world over. The home altar is ancient in its legacy and yet continues to this day."

What actually resides on an altar can be dictated by tradition, intuited personally, of some combination of these. A modern Wiccan altar is likely to be comparable to another created by unrelated builders. One can expect to find items such as candles in the cardinal directions, a container of water, and an incense smudge stick among others. Some traditions embellish to a great extent, as we read in Santeria Garments And Altars: Speaking Without A Voice (1994), Ysamur Flores-Pena explains, "The altars, which are usually built in a corner, display a variety of foliage or rich, beautifully suspended fabric... Transitional offerings of fruits and vegetables placed at the foot of the structure add the final decorative touch to the altars. This area is called the plaza." In many instances, statuary is an important element of altar design. The tremendous diversity of people can be expressed in what one chooses to display on this sacred stage. Dana Salvo begins to explain the motivation of object placement this way in Home Altars Of Mexico, (1997) "The sedimentary levels of history and experience represented by the particular emplacement of objects that adorn these domestic altars are powerfully emotive. Here objects, space, and time combine to conjure the holy." Yasmur Flores-Pena concludes, "The materials for the altar are considered sacred and are never used for anything else once they have been hung in or around a shrine."

Effective ritual creation is both a science and an art. The art aspect is one that will take years to develop, and the personal style you craft will evolve as your comfort level and skill level progress over time. Of course one should try to incorporate some elements of style and art into even the first and most basic rituals, because as we will see they have an important role to play. Keeping these additions simple in early rituals will help you focus on the task at hand, co-creating a ritual that has impact and influence on yourself and all other witnesses that may be present. As Serge Kahili King writes in Urban Shaman: The Healing Art Of Ceremony And Ritual (2000), "Ritual can serve many different purposes, but it won't serve them unless it is effective. An effective ritual is one which leaves a lasting impression and strongly influences people to reinforce or change assumptions, attitudes, or expectations. To do that it must be intellectually and emotionally satisfying...Otherwise it is no more than lifeless habit and dogma..."

In order for ritual to be effective there must be "very specific elements," King states, present in at least some measure. First it must be set aside from all other time in some special way such as by having a beginning and an ending. Those present will only be able to distinguish the ritual as such if it can not blend into the normal events of the day. Make sure the transitions are distinct into and out of the ritual; a drum roll intro and applause at the end are examples of noticeable transitions. Next, a good ritual will involve as many of the senses as can be engaged. The sights, sounds, smells, movements, and even taste present in the ritual will involve each witness exponentially as a co-creator in the reality that the rite is reflecting. A ritual will also follow an at least somewhat known form in order to be understandable to those present. One would not begin a ritual at the end nor end a ritual somewhere in the middle if an effect other than confusion was desired. As discussed in Beginnings In Ritual Studies (1995), Ronald L. Grimes writes, "The sense of timing in a ritual process is as distinctive as it is in a piece of music..." The cues of familiar flow and reasonable expectations of event sequence are needed by ritual goers, as Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson explain in Bringing Ritual To Mind: Psychological Foundations Of Cultural Forms (2002)," Although it may not always be immediately obvious, ritual actions are systematically connected to one another. The acts involved must follow in a certain order."

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