Chapter seven talks about the difficulties of designing a homepage. As quickly and clearly as possible, the homepage needs to answer four questions: what is this?, what can I do here?, what do they have here?, and why should I be here and not somewhere else? These questions must be answered with very little effort.
Some guidelines to designing a homepage include: use as much space as necessary but don't use any more space than necessary, don't use a mission statement as a welcome blurb, and test and test again. Taglines can always be an efficient way to get a message across without a lenghthy explanation. Good taglines should be clear and informative and convey differentiation and a clear benefit. Bad taglines sound generic.
Lots of designers are now using pulldown menus to save space, however they cause a number of other problems. For examples, you have to seek them out and they're hard to scan which doesn't make certain things obvious to the user right away.
Ten most violated homepage design guidelines:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20031110.html
Homepage Design:
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2007/08/home-page-design.php
How to design an effective homepage:
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/home-page-design/
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