The Best Home Pages Establish Identity and Purpose in a User-Friendly Interface

By Cynthia Pinsonnault

The home page is seen by most visitors, and for some it will be the only page viewed. First impressions stick and the home page impression should be one that builds credibility and trust.

Tough decisions and a clear idea of the site’s purpose are needed to prioritize the many things we might want to squeeze onto the home page:

• It must tell visitors what the site is, what it’s for and why they should be there.
• It must give an overview of what the site has to offer and establish the site’s hierarchy.
• Most sites need a search box that is easy to find and use.
• The home page should give hints about what the rest of the site contains and promote new additions or featured content.
• To stay current and entice visitors to return, it should have frequently updated content or at least links to new and timely information.
• Space must be allocated to any advertising, co-branding or cross-promotional activities.
• The home page must make it obvious how to get to the information the visitor is seeking as well as hint at data they didn’t know they needed.
• If the site uses registration, that needs to be clear and prominent on the home page.
• The home page should give an easily identified place to start.

With all that we expect the home page to accomplish, and the pressure to include more and more, often the big picture gets lost.

This is the one thing, the purpose of the home page — communicating the big picture. Before visitors will go looking through the site, they need to know they’re in the right place and they must be able to easily find their way around. No matter what else is on a home page, the following help to establish the site’s identity and purpose, and go a long way in reassuring visitors that they are in the right place:

Tag-lines and welcome statements

1. A well-worded tag-line placed near the site identity is read by visitors as a description of the whole site.
2. A welcome statement is a brief description of the site in a prominent position. Use both. Don’t make the mistake of thinking anyone knows anything about the site or products or services offered.

Navigation

1. The site’s navigation tells visitors what they will find on the site, where to start, how to search, where to register, etc. It cannot be vague, obscure or contradicted by conflicting multiple navigation systems.
2. Home page navigation may need to accomplish more than persistent navigation on other pages, through added detail or brief descriptions of sections, and may even be positioned differently. This is okay, but it shouldn’t be too different. There should be enough in common that visitors recognize easily that they are two versions of the same thing.

The home page establishes the experience the user will have. Plan it carefully to include everything needed to make that experience a good one.

If something is hard to use it doesn’t get used very much.

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