Forum Moderators: phranque
I've looked around at other sites I like, but can never seem to grasp what it is about their homepages that I do like. I lack inspiration for any new ideas, and when I do happen to have a new homepage idea it invariably doesn't turn out like I thought it would. One memorable example was the absurd notion that four or six scrolling divs with fixed background images would look good - it was a disaster.
My impression of a homepage has always been that it should be an introductory "jump-off" page for the rest of the site; a little text and a lot of links to other parts of the site. My goal has been to create a site map that has visual appeal.
But I can't make it happen.
My homepages either have no text, or too much. The ones with no text wind up with way too many pictures, which I have no talent for creating, and I can't seem to get a handle on what I really want on the page in the first place. I'm mixed up as to whether or not to include our normal advertising banners and text ads on the homepage, or if I should leave those for interior pages. And overall, I wind up with a disorganized mess.
I should add that my main problem site is for a pretty large online community for a niche audience. There are articles, forums, clubs, webmail, lists, products, member login and many other features to be accomodated. And somehow, I can't seem to put them together into a nice-looking conglomerate.
And so I'm venting. And it feels good.
But when all the venting is said and done, I'm still without a good homepage.
Any ideas on how I can gain some new inspiration or at least put together something that's even remotely okay?
Thanks for your patience, and your ideas,
Matthew
Feel like an trying a experiment? Pick a site while surfing one day. Try not to pick a "flash heavy" or database heavy site. A site that just "grabs" you for it's simplicity and effectiveness. Bookmark it, screen capture it, File Save it.
Then open up your graphics editor and web editor and "reverse design" the page you just saved. Similar to "reverse engineering" but with design. By taking a finished product and attempting to recreate it "exactly" as you see it is a lot harder that many people think and a great way to "learn by doing".
Use greeking and placeholder images if you need to, but I have a feeling the place you really need to focus in on is graphic design as opposed to coding.
Just a thought. I have my interns do this all the time and you would be amazed at how quickly you learn new techniques of design that cannot really be taught in a book (the way markup can).
ideally it should be continually/frequently updated to reflect new info you have on the site or point out currently popular pages.
throw in your company logo at the top and there you have it. (we don't have any other images on the home page and we are a grafics heavy website - you want the home page to come up 1. quick 2. quick and 3. quick or else you loose them)
check out the WebmasterWorld front page as a good example.
Best thing to do is get to know a decent, trained, designer, then ask them to take a look, you'd be surprised what they can do for you. The sites I've done with designers tend to be very attractive, or so I'm told, and the sites I designed myself tend to be pretty utilitarian.
Designers have skills I don't have, and will never have, they care about the surface almost exclusively, whereas programmers etc tend to care about functionality. Best is to get a designer. Design is hard to learn, most decent ones I've been around have gone to college or art/design school, either in fine arts or straight design, usually a bit of both.
