Jakob Nielsen, May 12, 2002
Summary:
A company's homepage is its face to the world and the starting point for most user visits. Improving your homepage multiplies the entire website's business value, so following key guidelines for homepage usability is well worth the investment.
Homepages are the most valuable real estate in the world. Each year, companies and
individuals funnel millions of dollars through a space that's not even a square foot in size. For good
reason. A homepage's impact on a company's bottom line is far greater than simple measures of e-commerce
revenues: The homepage is your company's face to the world. Increasingly, potential customers
will look at your company's online presence before doing business with you -- regardless of whether
they plan to close the actual sale online.
The homepage is the most important page on most websites, and gets more page views
than any other page. Of course, users don't always enter a website from the homepage. A website is
like a house in which every window is also a door: People can follow links from search engines and
other websites that reach deep inside your site. However, one of the first things these users do
after arriving at a new site is go to the homepage. Deep linking is very useful, but it doesn't give users the site overview a homepage offers -- if the homepage design follows strong usability guidelines, that is.
Following are ten things you can do to increase the usability of your homepage and thus enhance your website's business value.
Make the Site's Purpose Clear: Explain Who You Are and What You Do
- Include a One-Sentence Tagline -- Start the Home Page with a tagline that summarizes what the site or company does, especially if
you're new or less than famous. Even well-known companies presumably hope to attract new
customers and should tell first-time visitors about the site's purpose. It is especially
important to have a good tagline if your company's general marketing slogan is bland and
fails to tell users what they'll gain from visiting the site.
- Write a Window Title with Good Visibility in Search Engines and Bookmark Lists -- Begin the TITLE tag with the company name, followed by a brief
description of the site. Don't start with words like "The" or "Welcome to" unless you
want to be alphabetized under "T" or "W."
- Group all Corporate Information in One Distinct Area -- Finding out about the company is
rarely a user's first task, but sometimes people do need details about who you are.
Good corporate information is especially important to increase a new or lesser-known company's
credibility. An "About <company-name>" section is the best way to link users
to more in-depth information than can be presented on the homepage.
Help Users Find What They Need
- Emphasize the Site's Top High-Priority Tasks -- Your homepage should offer users a clear
starting point for the main one to four tasks they'll undertake when visiting your site.
- Include Alternate Methods For Exploring the Site -- Provide a sitemap and/or search capabilities.
Reveal Site Content
- Show Examples of Real Site Content -- Don't just describe what lies beneath the homepage. Specifics beat abstractions, and you have good stuff. Show some of your best or most recent content.
- Begin Link Names with the Most Important Keyword -- Users scan down the page, trying to find the area that will serve their current goal. Links are the action items on a homepage, and when you start each link with a relevant word, you make it easier for scanning eyes to differentiate it from other links on the page. A common violation of this guideline is to start all links with the company name, which adds little value and impairs users' ability to quickly find what they need.
- Offer Easy Access to Recent Homepage Features -- Users will often remember articles, products, or promotions that were featured prominently on the homepage, but they won't know how to find them once you move the features inside the site. To help users locate key items, keep a short list of recent features on the homepage, and supplement it with a link to a permanent archive of all other homepage features.
Use Visual Design to Enhance, not Define, Interaction Design
- Don't Over-Format Critical Content, Such as Navigation Areas -- You might think
that important homepage items require elaborate illustrations, boxes, and colors. However, users often dismiss graphics as ads, and focus on the parts of the homepage that look more likely to be useful.
- Use Meaningful Graphics -- Don't just decorate the page with stock art. Images are powerful communicators when they show items of interest to users, but will backfire if they seem frivolous or irrelevant. For example, it's almost always best to show photos of real people actually connected to the topic, rather than pictures of models.