4. Chapters 7 & 8 of Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think!"

The first step in recovery is admitting that the Home page is beyond your control
Designing The Home Page

The Home page has to accommodate:
- Site identity and mission.
- Site hierarehy.
- Search.
- Teases.
- Timely contnt.
- Deals.
- Shortcuts.
- Registratin.
- Show me what I'm looking for.
- ...and what I'm not looking for.
- Show me where to start.
- Establish credibility and trust.



And you have to do it ... blindfolded

- Everybody wants a piece of it.
- Too many cooks.
- One size fits all.

How to get the message across
- The tagline : we read it as a description of the whole site.
- The Welcome blurb.
- Use as much space as necessary
- ... but don't use any more space than necessary.
- Don't use a mission statement as a Welcome blurb.
- It's one of the most important things to test.

Nothing beats a good tagline!
- They are clear and informative.
- They are just long enough.
- They convey differentiation and a clear benefit.
- They are personable, lively, and sometimes clever.

The fifth question, "Where do I start?"
The Home page has to answer for visitors or users.
- Here's where to start if they want to search.
- Here's where to start if they want to browse.
- Here's where to start if I want to sample their best stuff.

Home page navigation ca be unique
- Section descriptions.
- Different orientation.
- More space for identity.

The trouble with pulldowns
- You have to seek them out.
- They're hard to scan.
- They're twitchy.


"The Farmer and the Cowman Should be Friends"
Why most web design team arguments about usablility are a waste of time, and how to aboid them.

The right kind of question to ask is "Does this pulldown, with these items and this wording in this context on this page create a good experience for most people who are likely to use this site?"

There is really one way to answer that kind of question: testing. You have to use the collective skill, experience, creativity, and common sense of the team to build some version of the thing (even a crude version), then watch ordinary people carefully as they try to figure out what it is and how to use it.