homepage redesign

Characteristics of ideal homesite

[starec]

I am about to start a homepage redesign project and would like to start a thread where people post useful hints on what makes (and what does not) a good e-commerce homepage. (The site is an e-commerce site with several product categories.)

I am primarily interested in improving the functionality of the homepage. Both positive (must have) and negative (avoid this) comments are welcome.

So far I have reached the following conclusions:

* product search function implemented in the highly visible part of the page (without scroll)

* visible navigation links to each product category homepage

* for non-registered users, invitation to join in

* show product samples with prices to prove the the USP (highly discounted prices in this case)

Some questions:

* anybody has experience with personalized "daily specials" (like amazon's Golden box) for registered visitors, as oposed to showing the same best-selling items to all users?

* is it better to show more individual products, or to give more visibility to product categories on the homepage? How many?

* any experience with the efficiency of displaying discount rates?: showing 2 prices, 2 prices and discount rate (i.e. save 20% ) , 2 prices and explicit discount (i.e. save 20$)...?

* bookmark this page link: do people really use it?

Any other homepage "do" / "don't"?

[miles]

There really is no BEST way to redo a site. You have to look at what the site is going to be specifically used for as well as how you are going to be selling the stuff on the site. Do you have a shopping cart? Or do you rely on the phone and emails?

Part of this sounds like a bad affiliate site.

I will take a swing.

- Loads within 4 seconds.

- If using a good many images for navagation use ALT tags.

- Use html as much as possible oh and text links.

- Unique content on each page describing the product in deatail.

DONTS

Dont do the bookmark it is an annoying popup that is quickly closed instead do a link that says bookmark.

Dont hook up with link farms.

Dont used too many images.

Dont use acrobat reader pages unless you want people to print off the web page.

[menton]

hi starec,

- Content should be made to be easily understandable and made easy to navigate. This includes not only making the language clear and simple, but also providing understandable mechanisms for navigating within and between pages. Dont use more than 14 words in a line

- Use a consistant page layout, and make the whole site as consistant as possible. i.e. use the same font

- have a link to the faq section and the home page on each page. Many online stores do not provide adequate service information (company policies, background and history) and therefore lose the turst of the visitor.

- I usually design with blue as the primary colour as it is seen as a trustworthy colour.

- I would put your search function, and purchase button in the top right corner as that is where it is expected to be.

If you have any questions...

menton

[starec]

Here are some basic, common sense tips on homepage building (from Jakob) worth reading:

[useit.com...]

[claus]

miles:

>> Loads within 4 seconds

Nice point - you don't see it often. It IS very important, although i tend to say two in stead of four.

Problem is, that being a developer, you often experience the site directly from a hard drive or through fast DSL on a relatively modern pc (one that can compute the page rendering, styles, and so on fast)

Users are generally not as well off in terms of access and equipment as developers, so; if it takes more than one (1) second for a full display on your own screen - go change something, 'cause then it's too fat (imho).

/claus

[Man about The web]

Snapshotting IMO is paramount. By this I mean creating mini-snapshots of your top products, then so on and so on. Your whole page should be a snapshot of what the rest of your site/catalouge is.

[Tigrou]

Hi starec,

Test the page in a variety of browsers / OS etc. Everyone agrees it should be done, but some people drop it when they run out of time / energy at the end of the project.

[richardb]

Do a series of mock ups and test it to death, watch what you end users do and say... ...how do I this? ...how do I that...? ...take absolutely nothing for granted.

Go for a neutral look, unless you want to make a statement...

Test it to death and once even the most stupid person you know can use it. You can start to add the frills.

Just make sure that you test it to death ;)

Rich