Home Pages That Say, ‘Drop In’

My wife likes doors—front doors, closet doors, porch doors, storm doors. When we were house shopping, the initial impression a door made on her set the tone for an entire walk-through. We shunned otherwise presentable choices with grotesque entries since she felt that ugly doors only led to places we didn’t want to be.

Your Web site’s home page is its only opportunity to create a favorable first impression.

Fortunately, it’s not hard to create an effective home page. In fact, simple home pages often work best, as demonstrated by Google’s long-time bare bones and industry-leading entry.

A handy federal government publication includes home page construction advice among its abundant research-based Web design and usability guidelines:

• The home page is different from all other Web site pages.
• Enable users to access the home page from any other page on the Web site with both a clickable logo and an explicit Home link.
• Present all major options on the home page. Don’t make visitors click to secondary or tertiary pages to discover everything your site offers.
• Remember that the home page is the key to conveying your site’s quality. Ensure that it looks like a home page; depending on standards in your industry, you might need to link to a site index, a map, and a search tool.
• Most important, communicate your site’s purpose and value. Don’t make people wonder why your site appeared in a list of search results.

Wipe your mind clear of what you know (and think you know!) about your organization and try to judge your Web site as a naive visitor might. Even better, recruit people to whom it’s all new and get their reactions to navigating, searching, and reading. Hope for positive feedback but be ready to act on complaints and suggestions.

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