The Curious Case of Gnomes vs. Welcome Mats (Splash Pages vs. Home Pages)
I've only been on three road trips in my life, and strangely enough, two of them were to Arizona. When I was eight, we took a long three-week summer vacation driving around all of the western United States with the goal of seeing the Grand Canyon. No offense to anyone in the lovely state of AZ, but as amazing as it is, Bryce Canyon is far prettier. The second trip was driving my boyfriend (now husband) down to Phoenix to go to college. Ah, those were the days.
Both adventures were long, hot, and vastly boring for the time on the road. The first one I mainly spent playing Barbie and My Little Pony with my sister, and the latter one I spent trying not to die of heat stroke (Nick's car had no air conditioning, after all…) and counting cacti. Some people count the different states on license plates when they take long trips, others play "Slug Bug", and some do what I wish I could have (there weren't too many houses on my mainly I-5 drive), which is to count lawn ornaments.
The funny thing about lawn gnomes, deer, that bend-over woman doing something in the garden is that although they're amusing, sometimes interesting, and at other times vastly disturbing, none of them are particularly welcoming. We've all done our share of raising our eyebrows at the pair of kissing lawn gnomes or wondering why there is a zombie crawling out of someone's garden (as terrifying and laughable as that may be). Still, I can't think of anything about either zombies or gnomes that would make me want to walk up to someone's house to pass out girl-scout cookies.
And, after all, isn't that what is happening when we go to a new website? There are plenty of websites out there with nice, clipped lawns, pretty hedges, and perhaps even a sign on the mailbox telling you what their house number is. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of websites out there that are covered in more than a little bit of garden clutter.
Recently, I decided that my blog needed a "splash page", and promptly went to discuss it with my friends and co-workers, Karina and Kyle. I was, of course, immediately shot down due to the miscommunication of what a splash page is. I was not thinking some pretty flash image that tells people maybe something about my site, but more importantly just makes them tap their foot in annoyance while waiting for it to finish so they can get on to the content… or perhaps spend the whole time scowering the page for that hidden little "skip" button. I was instead thinking of something similar to what Kyle is doing on his own CSSquirrel blog.
Since this experience, I have learned that there is a large difference between a "splash page" and a "home page". Most websites have home pages that give you some sort of landing, tell you who they are, and welcome you to come in and visit the rest of their home. Many blogs, on the other hand, don't have that luxury. At the same time, a lot of people who write blogs only want to have a blog. But, with the amount of places that we web-geek types find ourselves out there, we often want to show the world a little bit more about us than just our writing voice. You can even see these changes on Mindfly's home page with the new Flickr feed.
The big question is, after you've designed your blog (or perhaps your site), how do you tastefully make a landing page that is inviting rather than an eyesore? I have a few thoughts on it (and you knew I would, right? I mean, otherwise… what's the point?!)
- Stick to the design. When you make a page that you want to hold different content, but be an extension of a site that you already have, especially a home page… don't create a new design for it. All that will do is confuse your viewers, both old and new, as to what in the world you've done with your site. To go back to my analogy, the lawn needs to match the home. You don't want a Victorian house with a modern argyle (hyperbole, I know I know) lawn. Okay, maybe you do. But you shouldn't.
- K.I.S.S. This is my standard rule for almost everything. Keep It Simple, Stupid! Yes, we all want to know where you are all over the web, synopses of your most recent ten blog posts, your newest three twitter messages, and your full first page of flickr photos. I know that you all want to see mine after all. The more content that you have there, the more people have to get through and the more it becomes a haze not unlike an opening flash image where you look for the skip button.
- Be afraid of space, but… don't be afraid of space. Pushing everything together into one tightly packed little section is a big No-No! At the same time, spreading it out too much for makes it harder for the eye to find the information it's looking for. Keep to your lines, and always revert back to rule 2 if you're worried that you're starting to fill too much space, or if you're not using enough.
- Always remember your audience. As much as your viewers may love (or hate. Or love to hate) you, don't put random nonsensical lawn gnomes on your home page, just because it's cool. If you have a theme that may be about you but may not be all about you, don't forget to stick to that theme. If you're an accountant, we may want to know about you personally, but we're probably really looking for next year's tax information.
I often feel like my web road-trip is long, that I stumble across a lot of well manacured lawns, and I stumble across a lot of clutter. I can't say that I've been counting, but I can say that if anyone stumbles across my own front yard, I hope that it will be welcoming rather than scare them away with zombies.