Chapter 7: The first step in recovery is admitting that the Home page is beyond your control
Designing the Home page

Your home page needs and objectives

  • Concrete
    • Site identity and mission
    • Site heirarchy
    • Search
    • Teases
    • Timely content/Evidence of recent update
    • Deals
    • Short-cuts
    • Registration
  • Abstract
    • Show me what I'm looking for
    • ...and what I'm not looking for
    • Show me where to start
    • Establish credibility and trust

And you have to do it...blindfolded

  • Everybody wants a piece of it (Home page is prime real estate)
  • Too many cooks (Everybody has an opinion)
  • One size fits all (Global Appeal)

The first casualty of war (The big picture)

  • Four key questions to answer:
    1. What is this?
    2. What do they have here?
    3. What can I do here?
    4. Wy should I be here--and not somewhere else?
  • The top five illegitimate excuses for not spelling out the big picture
    1. "We don't need to. It's obvious."
    2. "After people have seen the explanation once, they'll find it annoying."
    3. "Anybody who really needs our site will know what it is."
    4. "That's what our advertising is for."
    5. "We'll just add a first time visitor link."

How to get the message across

  • The tagline
  • The Welcome blurb
  • Use as much space as necessary
  • But don't use any more space than necessary
    • Just long enough but not too long
    • Limit to four key features
  • Don't use a mission statement as a Welcome blurb
    It's one of the most important things to test

Nothing beats a good tagline

  • Good taglines...
    are clear and informative
    are just long enough (6 to 8 words)
    convey differentiation and clear benefit
    personable, lively, and sometimes clever
    • only if it helps convey--not obsure--the benefit.
  • Bad taglines...
    • not vague
    • sound generic
      • not a motto
      • convey value proposition

Tagline? We don't need no stinking tagline

  • Tagline exceptions
    • Websites that are household words
    • Websites whose offline status is very well known
      • CNN.com
      • Smithsonian Magazine

The fifth question: "Where do I start?"

  • "Here's where I want to start if I want to search."
  • "Here's where I want to start if I want to browse."
  • "Here's where I want to start if I want to sample their best stuff."
  • Prominent start links for...
    • step-by-step processes
    • signing-on
  • Clear labels
    • "Search"
    • "Browse by Category"
    • "Sign in"
    • "Start Here"

Home page navigation can be unique

  • Unique Section Descriptions
  • Different Orientations
  • More space for identity
  • Keep consistent
    • style
    • font
    • categories
    • color
    • capitalization

The trouble with rollovers

  • You have to seek them out
  • You can only see one at a time
  • They're twitchy (shorter helps)
  • They're ineffective unless the popup appears near where you're pointing

The trouble with pulldowns

  • You have to seek them out
  • They're hard to scan
  • They're twitchy

Rotate your stock

  • one larger rotating promo is better than three small permanent ones

Why Golden Geese make such tempting targets, or "Funny, it tastes like chicken..."

  • Four ways to kill the goose:
    1. Putting a banner on the home page if you don't have to
    2. Promoting everything
    3. Letting deals drive the homepage design
    4. Getting greedy for user data