A home page is like a shop window in a website
The home page is there to entice the right customers to enter.
Think about it in terms of the website user: they’ll be wondering if your business is the right company for them, in terms of products, services, culture, personality, and price.
In short: can your business fulfill their need? Do you have the right solution? And can they trust you?
The homepage is what many people see when first encountering a website, and it can lead to a lasting impression (negative or positive) that can affect their decision to return to it.
Identify the website’s purpose/goal
A designer should understand the purpose of the site in order to build an effective homepage design.
The homepage is a website’s initial chance to make an impression, so a site visitor must see exactly what they’re looking for the moment they arrive. Defining the purpose of the website will help you see what will attract users to the site.
Keep in mind that the website’s purpose is different from the website’s topic. For example, "real estate" is not an example of a purpose.
"To sell homes" also cannot be the purpose — what is the likelihood that someone will buy a house off a website without seeing the property firsthand?
Keeping in line with the real estate example, the purpose of a realty website might be one of the following:
Each of these purposes can lead the visitor to an action and can guide them to take further steps in acquiring property as a direct result from visiting the website. In this example, the website is a gateway to making a home sale. Therefore, an effective real estate homepage will have property and real estate agent locators to help users quickly find what they’re looking for in order to take the next action to purchasing a home.
Another example we can use is an online portfolio site. What is the purpose of a portfolio? Saying "to get clients/a job" is too broad, and instead you should define your site purpose as tangible and realistic goals.
Examples might be:
If your purpose is "to get a client to make contact," you can make a web form readily available on the front page.
If the main purpose is to display your works or impress a potential employer, the homepage could showcase thumbnails of portfolio pieces in a manner that will entice the visitor into checking out more pieces.
Ultimately, all of these purposes will lead to more clients or jobs, but it is important to identify your tangible goals so that you can understand how to strategize your front page layout.
Two ways of doing this are:
With a solid understanding of User Experience design, it’s easy to create a great website with excellent user-centricity.
When users come to your site from a landing page other than the front page – the next action is usually to go to the homepage to see what other things might be of interest and to understand what the site is about.
Flickr is an excellent example of a website whose front page design is effective in increasing their membership, and whose design is changes depending on whether you are logged on as a member, or not.
The home page is there to entice the right customers to enter.
Think about it in terms of the website user: they’ll be wondering if your business is the right company for them, in terms of products, services, culture, personality, and price.
In short: can your business fulfill their need? Do you have the right solution? And can they trust you?
The homepage is what many people see when first encountering a website, and it can lead to a lasting impression (negative or positive) that can affect their decision to return to it.
Identify the website’s purpose/goal
A designer should understand the purpose of the site in order to build an effective homepage design.
The homepage is a website’s initial chance to make an impression, so a site visitor must see exactly what they’re looking for the moment they arrive. Defining the purpose of the website will help you see what will attract users to the site.
Keep in mind that the website’s purpose is different from the website’s topic. For example, "real estate" is not an example of a purpose.
"To sell homes" also cannot be the purpose — what is the likelihood that someone will buy a house off a website without seeing the property firsthand?
Keeping in line with the real estate example, the purpose of a realty website might be one of the following:
- To showcase new or featured properties for sale
- To help visitors find the business or realtor contact information
- To assist visitors in finding the right realtor for their needs
Each of these purposes can lead the visitor to an action and can guide them to take further steps in acquiring property as a direct result from visiting the website. In this example, the website is a gateway to making a home sale. Therefore, an effective real estate homepage will have property and real estate agent locators to help users quickly find what they’re looking for in order to take the next action to purchasing a home.
Another example we can use is an online portfolio site. What is the purpose of a portfolio? Saying "to get clients/a job" is too broad, and instead you should define your site purpose as tangible and realistic goals.
Examples might be:
- "to encourage a potential client to make contact with me"
- "to impress the fellow designers and gain a positive reputation in the community"
- "to impress a potential employer"
If your purpose is "to get a client to make contact," you can make a web form readily available on the front page.
If the main purpose is to display your works or impress a potential employer, the homepage could showcase thumbnails of portfolio pieces in a manner that will entice the visitor into checking out more pieces.
Ultimately, all of these purposes will lead to more clients or jobs, but it is important to identify your tangible goals so that you can understand how to strategize your front page layout.
Differentiating goals of the homepage vs. goals of the website
One point to keep in mind is that the goal of the entire website may be different than the goal of the homepage. How can this be? A homepage is an entry point, and while the overall goal of a website may be to sell a product, the homepage’s goal may be to lead users to the web pages that enable them to buy the product. Trying to "make the sale" for a website right on the front page can deter a visitor.Learn the difference between a new vs. returning visitor
An important part of planning the design of a website, and especially the front page, is to realize that there are two types of visitors: people who haven’t seen the site before, and people coming back for more. A website can’t function very well without any repeat visitors, so we must think of ways to promote reoccurrences.Two ways of doing this are:
- Get the visitor interested in the content enough to revisit
- Provide resources that remind the visitor to return. (An RSS feed, for example.)
With a solid understanding of User Experience design, it’s easy to create a great website with excellent user-centricity.
Subscriptions and memberships
Having subscription options on your homepage can encourage repeat visits. One of the most frequent subscription points on a website is via the home page.When users come to your site from a landing page other than the front page – the next action is usually to go to the homepage to see what other things might be of interest and to understand what the site is about.
Flickr is an excellent example of a website whose front page design is effective in increasing their membership, and whose design is changes depending on whether you are logged on as a member, or not.
