Jeff Bridgforth :: Webcraftsman

Crafting Web sites since 1999

I am a Web designer passionate about creating elegant, inspiring, and usable Web experiences that connect with an audience and fulfull business objectives.

Homepage the least important page on your site?

September 7, 2007

Best Practices · Design (Web) · Useability

Last week, I was lis­ten­ing to a pod­cast from UIE on Home­page design. Jared Spool pointed out that the home­page is the least impor­tant page on your site. He believes the con­tent page is the most impor­tant because that is what the user is look­ing for. I see his wis­dom in this.

Jared also talked about how the home­page is usu­ally the first page that gets designed because it is the eas­i­est (and I think can be the most fun). Con­tent pages and other pages that get you there are harder.

Users are not on your site to hang out on your home­page. They are there to get some­thing, whether it is buy­ing some­thing, get­ting news, read­ing an arti­cle or con­nect­ing with a friend. The home­page and sup­port­ing pages (depart­ments, gal­leries, etc.) are there to get users to what they want.

Given this, I have been re-thinking the design process and here are pre­lim­i­nary thoughts for the order of atten­tion I give to design:

  1. Con­tent pages
  2. Gallery pages
  3. Depart­ment pages
  4. Home­page

For an expla­na­tion of these type of nav­i­ga­tion pages, see 8 Types of Nav­i­ga­tion Pages by Jared Spool.

Of course the day I lis­tened to this pod­cast, I was work­ing on a new design for a site and I was start­ing with the home­page. After hear­ing this pod­cast, I think I need to put the home­page aside and start on the con­tent pages and work my way up.

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