Does everything need to be on the home page?
A company's home is where most Web visitors end-up. It's normal to want to load the page with as much information as possible, to make sure we don't miss anything important. However, this could backfire at you. Information overload is unfortunately a problem that plagues too many home pages. The trick is to achieve the right balance of information and white space. Often, Web managers are pressured to add links to too many resources, but they must resist doing that. And the best way to do that is to create a solid information architecture together with areas for news, "what's new on the site", highlights or announcements or any combination of these. So, no, not everything goes on the home page. Only content designed to provide visitors with the information they came for.
posted by Stephan Beauchesne @ 12:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hi,
As a web project manger for over 8 years, I have seen the "garbage dump" home page. It gets even more insane when there are competing animated items. Google has a nice approach where the owner of a new service or area has to show enough traffic to that area to justify adding it to the front page. Since web metrics show that the home page gets the most eyeballs, too many marketing and product groups are able to push thier way on.
If the site was design well, with good navigatin and a good understanding of the different users and why they are there, then the web mangers would have a better case for keeeping the home page simple.
Agreed. The problem is often political. When I was managing a very large international Web site, we had to balance out various interest across the corporation. Unfortunately, sometimes political agenda drove the decision making process.
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