Entry Page Design Considerations

In General

First-time visitors to your site typically will enter your site through the index page (also known as default page, home page, entry page, or opening page). To make a good first impression and entice visitors to proceed into your site, you should carefully design the index page. Depending on the content of your site, your opening page can be creative, artistic, functional, businesslike, moody, high-tech, bright, busy (but not cluttered) or simple. An effective opening page for a cartoon site might be a simple one frame cartoon with a funny caption and an enter instruction. One good cartoon would set a perfect tone for the entire site. An online newspaper would do better to show headlines and links to other stories right on its opening page. People want to get right to the "meat" on that kind of site.

Things to Avoid on Index Page

At all costs, avoid cheap blinking gifs, annoying cursor followers, and excessive advertising. Try to use the highest quality images possible. If you are not artistic, you can express yourself with photographs or show original style by manipulating fonts, text, gradients, and colors. Maintain good spacing and avoid adding non-related elements to the page. Make it easy for viewers to find their way around the page.

Size of Index Page

Recognize that the de facto standard browser is set to 800 x 600, the average monitor has less than 17 inches of actual viewing area, and that toolbars use top and bottom screen space. If you are making a pure "splash" index page with no navigation or information, you should consider fitting everything in one screen without making viewers scroll horizontally or vertically. Scrolling vertically is acceptable if you have "content" on the index page.

When to Design Index Page

When to design the index page is a matter of personal preference and organization. Many webmasters like to design the index page after finishing a substantial amount of "inside" pages. This is similar to the "author method" where an author comes up with a title for a book after substantially completing the book. We find this method particulary helpful for text intensive websites. Some webmasters enjoy creating an index page first then have additional pages flow out of the initial concept. This approach seems to work best for graphic intensive websites or websites that are designed around a strong logo.

Go To:

1) Entry Page Design Considerations
2) Designing Inside Pages
3) Content Development
4) Technical and Other Matters
5) Web Design 101+ Homepage