On Rethinking the homepage

  by Alex Horstmann | 02 Jul 2007 | Permalink | User Experience, Web 2.0

Allan wrote about Rethinking the Home Page and my response was getting to0 long to be a comment so I’m writing it as a post.

Allan said:

Today, visitors typically visit web sites as a result of a search or a deep link from somewhere else. And that means that you have to make sure every page on your web site feels like a ‘home page’, i.e. a page where every visitor feels welcome.

I wholeheartedly agree – it’s not all about the homepage. I think that if the navigation and usability of your site has been well thought out then a user landing on a page 2 or 3 levels deep within a sites hierarchy should feel comfortable that they know what the site is about and how to get to a home page or section home page. A home page should be an introduction to your site and if you’re blogging have your latest blog entry. Not a long list of the last 87 blogs, but only the first paragraph of each visible.

I don’t think that this is anything new – nor do I think that the home page needs to be rethought. It seems that the entire concept of website usability and accessibility are being constantly eroded by the latest fad of blogging. Blog sites tend to be complex to navigate, present too much information to the user and sacrifice usability for the joy of having a blog.

The basic principles of website usability and accessibility remain the same today as they did 5 or 10 years ago. Navigation and always making the user feel safe on your site. At any point a user should know where s/he is and feel confident that they can get to a home page or a section head page easily.

Most new blog sites break this. You land in a content page, 2 or 3 levels down from the home page and there is no indeciation as to where you are or how you get to somewhere that help you to understand what the site is about.

Look at this page:

• The header is a cartoon that gives no indication of what the site is about.
• There is no logo, so you get no branded feel of a Tideway site.
• The home link is the text (which is an image) that says blog.tideway.com. No tag line indicating who, what or why.
• There is no breadcrumb, which helps the user to understand where they are in a site and gives them a lifeline of the top level of the breadcrumb trail that they know will bring them back somewhere safe.
• A long list of links down the right – too many of them and with only passing attempt to help the user to understand where they will go if they click on one of them.

I am not anti blog at all, I just think that they present too much information and that sites built around blogging systems do not address the principles of website usability.

Allan goes on to say:

Invest in your web site, and make sure you don’t focus just on the ‘home page’.

I would go further and say that the new online culture of blogging is leading to sites being less and less usable and throwing away years of research into website usability. SURLs Usability News! is a good place to start to find out where you’re going wrong!