Homepage Design 5 Fundamental Principles

Homepage Design: 5 Fundamental Principles #

Excerpt #

Effective homepages are simple and easy to access, communicate the organization’s and site’s purpose, show engaging content, and prompt users to take action.

Summary:  Effective homepages are simple and easy to access, communicate the organization’s and site’s purpose, show engaging content, and prompt users to take action.

The homepage is one of the most important pages of any given website. It is often the first — and possibly the only — chance to captivate and engage a user. A well-designed homepage should guide users towards their goals with clarity and precision, while effectively reflecting the brand identity and site offerings.

This article outlines 5 fundamental principles for homepage design, each accompanied by practical guidelines, aiming to provide clear direction on crafting effective homepages.

• Principle 1: Ensure Easy Access to the Homepage
• Principle 2: Communicate Who You Are and What You Do
• Principle 3: Reveal Content Through Examples
• Principle 4: Prompt Actions and Navigations
• Principle 5: Keep Homepages Simple
• Durability of the Homepage Principles

Principle 1: Ensure Easy Access to the Homepage #

The homepage is often considered the “front door” of a website, serving as a primary entry point and a vital anchor for visitors. While users don’t always enter a website from the homepage, many return to it as a safe harbor when getting lost on a site. Thus, making your homepage easily accessible is essential.

1.1 Ensure every page includes both implicit and explicit links to the homepage.

People commonly rely on the homepage to orient themselves, even when they arrive at an interior page via a search engine. A direct link to the homepage is a must-have on websites because it provides a safe fallback. Include both implicit links (through logos) and explicit links (through a link labeled Home) to ensure easy access to your homepage.

❌ HelloFresh’s plan-selection page lacked a link to its homepage — an intentional design choice meant to keep users focused on the purchase flow. However, this approach left customers feeling trapped.

1.2 Use a simple and predictable URL for your site.

The URL should be easily inferred from your company’s name. Predictable URLs, such as company.com, allow users to guess the site address without having to rely on a search engine. (It also makes browser suggestions less likely to be wrong.)

If your product or company is frequently referred to by an alternate name, like “Coke” for Coca-Cola, acquire URLs for these common nicknames too. For example, attempting to visit www.coke.com redirects to the main URL, www.coca-cola.com.

1.3 Signpost your homepage by making it visually distinct from other pages.

Your homepage should stand out from other pages to allow users to easily recognize their starting point, whether they’re arriving at your site for the first time or navigating back from elsewhere. The homepage design needs to align with the site’s overall style yet clearly set the homepage apart from other pages. The combination of distinctive visual and navigational signposts will help users recognize and recall your homepage.

❌ With an identical top banner, Icahn Enterprises L.’s homepage (left) looked highly similar to its News Release page (right), challenging users to distinguish the actual homepage.

Principle 2: Communicate Who You Are and What You Do #

First impressions matter. Treat your homepage as an elevator pitch to prospective customers, quickly and clearly conveying what your organization does and what users can accomplish on your site. Don’t make people guess — studies indicate that failing to communicate a site’s purpose at a glance causes potential customers to abandon the site.

2.1 Display the company name and logo prominently in the top left corner of the homepage.

It’s become standard for the company logo to be placed in the top-left corner of the homepage — that’s where people will first look for it. Avoid centered logos and make sure your logo is clearly visible and distinct from other elements on your homepage.

❌ Chevron’s logo was not noticeable due to its nonstandard centered placement and small size. In addition, the brand name in the logo was very small, and the color of the logo could blend with the image in the background.

2.2 Include a tagline that explicitly conveys what your site or company does.

Do not assume visitors to your site know your brand. Unless your company name inherently gives away what you do, include a concise tagline on your homepage to communicate who you are and what you do.

✅ TurboTax’s homepage effectively communicated its offering through a concise tagline, highlighting the accuracy and flexibility of its tax-filing service.

People rarely read online — they’re more likely to scan instead. Therefore, your tagline should be simple, scannable, and to the point. Format your content thoughtfully, avoiding walls of text that clutter the homepage and deter users.

❌ Old Republic’s homepage featured dense, unformatted blocks of text, which can discourage users from engaging further.

Moreover, cheerful “welcomes” on homepages aren’t helpful as they do not provide any information about your company. Transform these greetings into meaningful taglines instead. The best way to welcome users is by providing a clear explanation of your site’s offerings and a distinct starting point for navigation.

❌ Qurate showcased a generic welcome message in the hero space of its homepage, consequently pushing the company brief below the fold.

2.3 Emphasize the unique value your site brings to your users, as well as how it differentiates from competitors.

Your homepage should communicate your unique value proposition clearly, usually through a descriptive tagline and compelling content in the hero space. To do that, you need to know your target audience’s needs, challenges, and goals well, and demonstrate how your service addresses these in distinctive ways compared to competitors.

A well-defined value proposition should answer the question, “Why should I choose this site/company over others?” To this end, every element on your homepage — from images to text — should work harmoniously to deliver a persuasive message right from the first interaction.

✅ Berkley showcased its competitive advantage with a section titled What Sets Us Apart on its homepage, allowing users to distinguish it from competitors.

Your homepage should speak the users’ language. Use words that resonate with people and avoid jargon, business terminology, and feature-driven language.

❌ Citizens Bank’s homepage promoted a trademarked service called Citizen Checkup, a personalized financial consultation. Unfortunately, the copy did not clearly explain the offering.

2.4 Ensure that featured imagery accurately reflects your brand.

Images should be used judiciously on your homepage to engage users and express brand identity. Opt for informative and relevant visuals that offer insight into your brand.

Avoid purely decorative or unhelpful graphics, as users tend to skip over them. Your homepage is the most valuable real estate on your website, so every image should serve a purpose and add value.

❌ Par Pacific, an oil-and-gas exploration-and-production company, featured a generic stock image of water in its hero space, potentially leading visitors to misconstrue the company’s offerings.

✅ BP’s homepage displayed imagery of its facility in the hero space, offering an informative snapshot of its business focus.

Principle 3: Reveal Content Through Examples #

Think of your homepage as the entrance to a physical store. Just as customers rely on examples in brick-and-mortar stores to find what they need, homepages should showcase samples of the site’s offerings. Doing so encourages further exploration and helps users quickly determine if the site contains what they’re looking for.

3.1 Place the most important content above the fold, and lead users down the page when there is more content to see.

The concept of page fold remains crucial for homepages, despite the many available screen sizes and the ubiquity of responsive design. The fold — the area of the page visible without scrolling — is pivotal because users are inclined to scroll further only if what’s displayed above the fold captures their interest. Thus, the content above the fold serves as a gatekeeper, determining whether users will engage further with your site.

Designing for the fold is twofold (pun intended); it involves:

• Positioning the most critical content as high on the page as possible so it is visible above the fold regardless of users’ device sizes.  
• Crafting a layout that guides users to scroll down the page.

People still spend most of their viewing time at the top of a page. Before designing the layout, carefully rank content by importance, and structure your layout accordingly to reflect this priority.

❌ Bath & Body Works placed a promotional banner and a portion of the video widget above the fold on its homepage. The dark overlay indicated the area below the fold. Unfortunately, the content above the fold revealed little about the product or the brand and did not encourage further exploration.

Be wary of false floors when designing your homepage, especially with the growing popularity of image-based design. Ensure continuity in your content and layout, and encourage visitors to scroll beyond the fold.

❌ United States Steel used a full-bleed image on its homepage. However, without a clear indication of content beyond the fold, visitors may mistakenly assume this image is the sole content available on the homepage.

3.2 Provide specific examples of your site’s content.

Your homepage should go beyond a general overview and provide specific examples of your offerings. Thoughtfully curated content examples are more effective in communicating your value than broad, umbrella terms. Displaying samples of your site content on your homepage helps users form a mental model of your site and encourages them to explore further. For instance, a mere link labeled Product Spotlight that directs to a category page pales in comparison to showcasing a curated selection of featured products.

❌ Freeport-McMoRan’s homepage highlighted four generic categories of content with image links to each category page. This page would be more effective if it displayed samples of content from each category.

Beware of featuring content that may not be representative of your site’s offerings. Seasonal or promotional content can shape users’ perceptions of your site’s offerings and lead them to misunderstand your core offerings.

❌ Ovintive, a petroleum company, featured a full-screen carousel on its homepage to showcase its quarterly report and sustainability initiatives. However, the absence of representative content made it challenging for new visitors to grasp the site’s offerings.

Principle 4: Prompt Actions and Navigations #

The homepage often marks the beginning of a user’s exploration and acts as a central hub linked to other pages. Therefore, it should clearly communicate available actions and guide users toward their next steps.

4.1 Include clear, descriptive link labels that resonate with your users.

While clear, value-driven link labels are important on all types of web pages, they are critical on homepages. Link labels and calls to action should be specific and have high information scent.

Generic language like Click Here, Explore, or Learn More does not tell users what they will get when they click the links, and makes these links hard to differentiate from each other when users are scanning the page.

❌ ONEOK featured a button labeled Click Here beneath the Investors, Learn More heading. This language failed to convey what users can expect upon clicking the button.

Describe actions in a way that resonates with your target audience’s goals. What are they hoping to achieve on your homepage? Refer to your user research and personas and tailor your link and button labels to their need.

✅ Robert Half’s homepage effectively catered to various audiences by organizing primary calls to action under clear headings such as For Job Seekers and For Businesses.

4.2 Emphasize high-priority tasks with a clear visual hierarchy.

Give users a clear starting point by assigning visual prominence to key tasks. This goes back to understanding your users and their needs. Begin by identifying a list of top tasks. Use hierarchy and visual weight to draw attention to your prioritized tasks. The most crucial tasks should be visually prominent. Avoid visual competition among your homepage elements — if everything is emphasized, nothing stands out.

❌ CSX’s homepage struggled with a lack of visual hierarchy. The page’s dense, rich content made it difficult to discern high-priority tasks.

4.3 Locate primary navigation in a highly noticeable place.

The homepage is the most important routing page on a website, facilitating navigation on the site. Therefore, the navigation UI on the homepage should be easily accessible and intuitive. Users need to effortlessly find the navigation and, with a quick glance, immediately comprehend the site’s offerings and where they are located on the site.

❌ Booking Holdings concealed its global navigation behind the MENU link in the top left corner and tucks its subbrands beneath thin color bars at the bottom. Regrettably, both the MENU link and the colored bars lack visibility and, as a result, were hard to find.

Principle 5: Keep Homepages Simple #

While homepages contain a variety of content and links, they should not be overly complex to avoid overwhelming users. Keep animated content to a minimum to eliminate distractions. Clutter and disorganization can damage homepage usability and erode the credibility of a brand.

5.1 Opt for simple, standard homepage designs.

The WebAIM Million Report exemplifies the trend toward complex homepage designs. While it can be tempting to experiment with creative layouts on your homepage, people spend most of their time on other sites and prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Simple and predictable designs enhance user experience by aligning with users’ expectations and preserving their mental models.

Sticking to established norms ensures consistency and reduces the cognitive load on users, particularly newcomers who rely on the homepage to familiarize themselves with your brand. While innovation has its place, especially for well-established brands with loyal audiences, it’s generally safer to adhere to conventional designs that users are familiar with, so they can focus on getting to know your brand, rather than learning how your website functions.

❌ The Jacobs homepage featured an unconventional layout, positioning navigation on the right and employing floating content blocks with parallax effects. Furthermore, presenting content within colorful animated boxes could lead users to mistakenly interpret it as advertising.

5.2 Minimize motion and animation.

Don’t use animation or motion for the sole purpose of drawing attention to an element on the homepage — moving elements are often assumed to be ads. Moreover, excessive motion and animation raise accessibility concerns: parallax, autoforwarding carousels, and scrolljacking can cause disorientation and trigger vestibular disorders.

Avoid autoplaying videos. Visitors to a homepage typically do not expect, nor appreciate, being immediately greeted with loud, moving content upon their arrival. An automatically starting video can be so intrusive that it hampers one’s ability to engage with any other page content.

It’s crucial to provide users with control over autoplay and animated content. According to WCAG 2.1 guidelines, any autoplaying video that features moving, blinking, or scrolling content extending beyond five seconds must offer an option to pause or stop the video.

❌ Paramount’s homepage automatically played videos, featuring large, bold typography and intense animations. It did not offer the option to pause or stop the video, potentially causing discomfort and motion sickness among viewers.

Homepages should honor users’ preferences for interaction and content consumption. If you have motion animation triggered by interaction, provide an easy and noticeable way to reduce or disable the effect.

✅ Crown incorporated scrolljack effects on its homepage, while also offering a prominent option for users to disable the motion.

5.3 Provide immediate access to content.

Since the beginning of the web, speed has been a crucial factor in website user experience. Despite the widespread availability of high-speed internet today, response times are as relevant as they were 30 years ago. Google’s research revealed that the likelihood of users bouncing off a page increases by 32% when the page load time extends from 1 second to 3 seconds.

Homepages must strike a balance between providing rich content for exploration and ensuring swift loading times. Content should be readily accessible to users upon their arrival. Any response delays on your homepage can lead to confusion and provoke users’ departure.

❌ Steel Dynamics’s homepage showcased a video that takes several seconds to load. During the first 6.4 seconds, no visible content was presented, potentially prompting users to abandon the page before it fully loads.

Like described in our previous guideline, avoid animating crucial page elements like the logo, tagline, or main headline. Our research indicated that scroll-triggered text animations delay users. Your tagline should be immediately visible on your homepage. In time-sensitive scenarios, even the smallest delays in getting needed information can lead to missed opportunities.

❌ Danaher’s homepage contained an animated tagline, users had to scroll down to read the whole sentence. This design adds unnecessary interaction cost and hinders comprehension.

5.4 Avoid popup windows and splash screens unless legally required.

Popup modals and splash screens are among the top most hated design elements on the web. They act as barriers, interrupting users and keeping them from getting to your site content. Often associated with advertisements, they are typically dismissed immediately.

Popups should be avoided, especially before users can glean value from your website. Adhere to the reciprocity principle: offer value to your visitors before requesting anything from them. Worse, when popups stack on top of each other, the overlap introduces another layer of complexity and annoyance.

❌ Whirlpool greeted users with multiple layers of modal lightboxes featuring promotions and requests for contact information. This approach is highly intrusive and irrelevant to user goals, given they haven’t had the opportunity to view any content on the homepage.

The only acceptable use case for displaying popups or splash screens before the page content loads is when your site is legally obligated to request consent from users to accept the use of cookies or verify their age.

✅ Molson Coors, a brewing company, presented age verification on the splash screen before displaying the homepage content. This design aligns with legal requirements and is an acceptable use case for the splash screen.

Durability of the Homepage Principles #

In 2001, Jakob Nielsen identified 113 guidelines for homepage usability in his book Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed. Most of these guidelines remain true today and are applications of the 5 fundamental principles discussed in this article.

This durability is no coincidence. Decades of research have consistently shown that usability principles and guidelines are stable over a long time, because they are rooted in fundamental human behavior, which changes very slowly, if at all.

As the web continues to evolve, we expect these fundamental principles — ensuring easy access, communicating values and purposes, engaging users through content revelation, facilitating action and navigation, and prioritizing simplicity — will uphold their durable relevance, continuing to guide the future of homepage design.