[Sigia-l] Wither the HomePage?

[Peter Merholz]

On 5/27/03 8:46 AM, "Karl Fast" <karl.fast at pobox.com> wrote:

> 
>> Tim Bray (I know some of you folks like him) claims the need for
>> home pages is declining:
>> 
>> <http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/25/HomePage>
> 
> Tim bought me dinner a few years ago at a conference so I am
> predisposed to liking him.
> 
> Tim makes a good point. I have noticed similar things about my
> online habits. RSS is changing how I use the net to stay informed.

While Tim is always good for making interesting points, I would argue that
it's not RSS that is causing a 'whither home page' phenomenon.

Anyone who has watched people use the Web has seen that home pages are of
little importance except for
 - proving to the user that they got to where they expected to go
 - providing the user a way to get to where they want to go

I've long felt the obsession companies have with the homepage, to place
everything and the kitchen sink on the home page, to use the home page as a
promotional tool, etc., is fundamentally misguided. By and large, when
people are at a home page, they are not in a 'seducible' mindset. They are
not leaning back, they're leaning forward. They've got a notion in their
head of what they want, and the home page is useful only to the extent that
it gets them closer to that goal. Home pages accomplish that, by and large,
by making it clear what is available and how to get there.

I suppose this is a "duh," but it's surprising how hard it is to get people
to accept it. 

In this regard, I find the redesign of the wellsfargo.com homepage
interesting. It's pretty much a big LOG IN HERE call to action, with some
lists of links to products, and negligible promotion. Compare that with,
say, citibank.com, which is all about trying to get you to do things you're
probably not interested in doing.

--peter