The Teckki Says

This is a multi-part series on websites that will discuss what pages common to many websites should contain. This article discusses the Home Page.

Although a visitor can enter you website at any page, there are things that make each page what it is. The Home Page is the entry to your website, and it is the most likely page that visitors will enter your site, either directly from the browser, or through a search. Many visitors will click on your logo or home page button after entering your site mainly to see an overall view of who you are.

On the Home Page, visitors aren't looking for introductions as much as they are impressions. If form and fashion are ever in a battle, it is on your home page. This battle only lasts a short while. The "soon after" question is doe this site have what I am looking for.

Visitors no longer surf the web out of novelty. They are looking for something. I recently looked at a clothing catalog, and the impact the cover had was immediate: It had an item of interest to me, and grabbed my attention. While only a picture cover, it said a lot about what was inside. Home Pages work a lot like covers of catalogs, and should perform the following:

• It captured my attention
• It displayed an item I was interested in
• It compelled me to turn the page

I believe that successful websites have home pages that do these things. Many arguments have been made over usability, identity and branding, among other things. However, these play a supporting role to the central theme of satisfying a want or need. Much is also made of information, wording and style. Again, these are important items worthy of a discussion. If you could imagine your refrigerator as a home page, it stores food and drink, assorted across its shelves. Picking the cola over the water says nothing about the salad, but everything about the need to satisfy a thirst.

Depending on what you are presenting, a Home Page should attempt to captivate the imagination. It helps when a visitor thinks that the page represents what they would be doing if they were actually experiencing it. I think that this gets lost in the design phase. If I want to search for a site, I actually see that before I get to the site, and imagine when I find the page it will give me what I want. Home Pages are also good places to present value propositions. Television commercials do it all the time. They present a problem or aspiration. If you identify with it, fine. If not, then the next 25 seconds are spent on another channel.

Think about the commercial – it's the next 25 seconds that presents your options, and invites you to go further. Like the catalog I looked at earlier, the Home Page asks the question. If the answer is no, I move on. If the question is never asked, which happens with a lot of Home Pages, visitors do not vegetate for the next 25 seconds, they move off of the site.
If your Home Page captures a visitor, you will more than likely get well over 25 seconds to make your case with other pages of your website. If not, remember this, unlike the remove, someone’s hand is always on the mouse.