Design Class #1: The Homepage

I know, what you’re thinking:

What a pompous name for a category of posts! Who do they think they are?

Does that make it less pretentious if I tell you that we won’t be the ones “teaching”, but instead that we’ll try to summarize and link to the articles written by la crème de la crème of the web design/usability industry: Jakob Nielsen, A List Apart, 37 signals, Vitamin and so on? I thought so. It had to sound a bit grandiose and magisterial, right? So let’s start with the obvious first topic: the home page (aka HP).

Ah, the scary but exciting moment when you are facing your prospects and are about to unveil the way you imagine THEIR home page. You know that this is the slide that they’ve been waiting for since the beginning of the presentation, since the day they’ve briefed you as a matter of fact. So you’re doing your best to explain what led you to design the page this way, hiding your shaky and sweaty hand-palms, trying to sound clever as an usability expert who understands the brand so well. You know that you’re carrying on your shoulders a huge responsibility: if they hate your HP, it won’t matter if everything else in your powerpoint is perfect, the pitch is probably lost. But if they love it, get ready to pop some Champagne!

The home page is the first impression that your prospects will get from your design and understanding skills. It’s also the first impression that your client’ clients will get from the brand’s site. And you rarely have a chance to get a second impression. So you’d better get it right the first time!

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