tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840979806248747743.post2355795243954671580..comments2008-10-17T13:33:30.745-07:00Roy Lebannoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840979806248747743.post-73267861786097969092008-10-17T13:33:00.000-07:002008-10-17T13:33:00.000-07:00There is always a lot of tension about what the home page should be.<BR/><BR/>* A Description of the site<BR/>* A Demonstration of the site<BR/>* Social Proof<BR/>* 3rd Party Reviews<BR/><BR/>An example is <A HREF="http://faves.com" REL="nofollow">faves.com</A>. It started out being purely descriptive - a bunch of text <I>about</I> the site. But we recognized that people don't really read, so we changed to show a <I>simulation</I> of what a user might see if they joined. But we went too far with that approach, because people were not sure what they were looking at.<BR/><BR/>Today we have a mixture of some simple value propositions (bullet points), showing some user generated content from the site, and featuring some of our more popular users.<BR/><BR/>I think the main purpose of the home page is to create the right <I>impression</I>. You are trying to convince a potential customer that you have a high quality service, which other people are already using (social proof), and they they should be using too.Mike Kosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16991627140888922439noreply@blogger.com