home page: tell me who or what you are!
Written 24 Feb 2004
Pick a web site at random, any web site, perhaps one of your favorites or one of your own. Now visit the main page, the home page, of the site. By reading that page, do you know the purpose of the site? Does it convey enough information for you to want to dig deeper? Clear your mind of all bias (especially if it's your own site) and honestly evaluate that home page.
The primary purpose of the front page of a website is to introduce a visitor to the site. The front page should leave a visitor with a clear understanding of the purpose of the site, and of what they would expect to find in the rest of the site.
Is that what you find, consistantly? Is that how you design your own web sites? Is that what you stess to your clients and employers?
Navigation is a tricky and complex subject for web sites. But that first page, the home page, that is the most important page in the entire site. It is what motivates many people to delve deeper into the site. Hence, the home page of necessity needs clearly convey the purpose of the site, who the Company or Project is, at least in brief.
Think of it like a conversation. When you intially meet a person you start with some pleasantries and some initial inquiries about the other person: "Hello, how are you? What is your name? Where do you work? What do you do? What activities do you like? &c. "
Without an effective home page, visitors can be left wondering why they came to the site. It seems so simple, so 1995, but it is amazing how many Companies and Projects forget this.