Home page design-the mistakes to be avoided

Melanie Wood, Raleigh NC
123Triad: Web Design & SEO Company

Home page design-the mistakes to be avoided

It is obvious that the home page of a site, portal or Intranet is the one the most important. It should give detailed information to the visitors of what to expect in the site or what they can do inside the site. However, mostly this page does not live to its expectations. It only satisfies internal politics while ignoring the visitor’s needs. The below pitfalls must be avoided in order for one to set up a home page that is effective meeting the users expectations as well as matching the corporate objectives.

1) Few links and too much information:

Most home pages dwell on providing a lot of information for example company description, complete news, etc. or just have many images. People who visit are not interested in a lot of information on the home page nor do they want to be kept guessing what is behind the images. They would want to go directly to the information they came to look for. Giving a lot of information on the home page takes up space for valuable links. Moreover, it increases the chances that the site visitors will not be able to find the link they are looking for, hence will not get the information they are looking for. Portals and Intranets are the two types of pages, that apply to all Web applications for example Web sites,. Those are destination pages and navigation pages. Navigation pages enable site users find navigation options. Destination pages give the information site users are searching for. The home page is the main page for navigation. It should provide as many links to the web sections as possible. Links to the site sections from the home page are determined by the Web strategy. Two major linking approaches exist:

- Individual link- this relates to a certain link for a whole Web section.

- Category links- which is one link to a whole Web section. It is followed by links to give more details to this section. You should provide a link that defines a specific category of information in your site.

Further, employ individual links for web sections targeting secondary audiences e.g. company profile.

2) Use of Animations:

Usability research has shown that many animations detract the people visiting a site. Despite this fact, animations are still used on several business sites. In many, it is marketing managers who instruct web designers to create sites with animations. Though designers are aware of the derailing capability of animations they still go ahead to create such sites. Instead of just creating sites they should explain to the managers the clear difference between offline and online media. Publicity should attract the prospects attention in offline marketing. While people who visit online sites usually have a specific objective in mind. They therefore, do not need too much information to be publicized to attract their attention. Animations can be replaced by hooks. Hooks contain very little text to inform site users of what to expect by just clicking on them. Hooks can be applied to other navigation pages not only the home page. Hooks that are effective target page audience.

3) Not telling site users what they can do on the site:

Site visitors have a specific intention in mind while visiting a site e.g. applying for a job or looking for scholarship information. Using action verbs like apply, financial aid etc enables site visitors to get the information easily. Action verbs should also define further links e.g. a link called a product is misleading because it does not specify the kind of action that will be available e.g. price etc. Action verbs should be used to complement links for they do help reduce the frustration of the site visitors and also increase their effectiveness.

4) Home page basics missing:

The following are some usability practices which I think web designers should implement.

-The length of the home page should be less than two screens having a resolution of 800×600. It should fit within one screen. Strategic links should be placed on the first screen to capture the sites users’ attention fast.

- Links to site should support tools like site search or site map. Some users prefer finding their information using site search. Hence it is important that sites provide the search option on the home page.

-Link to the company profile and link to privacy policy from navigation of the text at the bottom (text navigation bar and navigation bar). However, it should provide an active link from any other page within the site apart from the home page.

- Consistency in navigation with the rest of the site. You should make sure that you reduce user confusion by ensuring consistency of the home page with the rest of the site.

123Triad webdesign offers affordable custom website design. Our full service website design company only hires certified website designers. Please contact us today on 1-800-720-0816 for your next web site design project.

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