[Sigia-l] the lesser importance of home pages -> more splash pagefun?

[Christopher Fahey]

> That leaves those who visit the home page for other reasons, 
> such as getting an overall impression of the site offerings/
> promise/brand, which could be communicated via the 
> theatrics of a splash page etc. 
> 
> I remain unconvinced of this idea (and appalled), but what the heck?

If by "splash page" you mean a classic "skip intro" Flash animation, I agree
that such stuff is almost always useless. But the polar opposite of this --
putting a hundred "useful" things on the home page -- is IMHO just as bad.
It seems to me that the backlash against splashy branding/messaging areas on
home page came hand in hand with the bloating of home pages. Half the sites
I visit recently have tons of information on the home page, yet still leave
me wondering "What is this site for?"


> does this give license to do the splash page / intro funnel
> thang once again?

I think by "funnel" you mean "skip intro" again, but if you mean "funnel
users to the right place and don't try to serve everyone's needs right there
on the home page", then I say "hell yeah". 

Your observation that increasingly many (I wouldn't say "most", though)
users are skipping past the home page right to the page or section they're
looking for is valid, and I hope it discourages home page designers from the
delusion that people will make their company's home page their browser start
page, and I hope it alleviates competition within orgs for home page real
estate. 

Home pages should do four things perfectly:

1) Succintly tell the user what this site is: who you are, what you do, how
it works, what is there. Use as few words as possible. A splash image can
certainly help.
2) Let them search: Provide an obvious search box and a link to advanced
search, if you have one.
3) Provide huge obvious link(s) to the most likely place the user is going
to. The fewer the better: most sites can probably pick two or three links
that represent 50% of what all visitors to their site are looking for. I bet
that most sites could put fewer than ten obvious links on their home page
and fully satisfy 90% of what every user is looking for.
4) Provide a clear navigation.

Beyond this, there's not much else that is essential. Promoting the company,
brand, or a specific product is probably a pretty good candidate for number
5. Making special announcements, reporting company news, providing a
directory of even more links to sub-areas of the site, etc. are all valid
things to put on a home page, too, though not always critical. If your home
page does 1-4 well, I'd think carefully before putting anything else on the
page. 

In short, home page minimalism is the new splash page. It's already
happening.

1995: Splash Home Page
2000: Home Page Bloat
2005: Home Page Minimalism

Cheers,
-Cf

Christopher Fahey
____________________________
Behavior
http://www.behaviordesign.com