The essence of the home page; what does this mean? The answer is quite simple; it refers to its indispensable quality, its unique quality. Without a distinguishable quality your web site will be at a disadvantage. The success of your web site leans heavily on the web design, of which the home page is probably the most critical element. No matter how good your business potential is you need visitors to your web site to realize success in any Internet venture. The following are some pointers that can be used in aiding attracting visitors into you web site via the basic design of your home page.

The first point is the presentation of your home page; the information must be easily absorbed by the visitors. Often when entering a site the visitor is presented with a page that scrolls on and on. This is bad when presenting to the general public, it suggests that there is too much information on the page. The visitor has to be able to remember the points made at the beginning of the page without being side tracked by either too many points or too much information on one or all of the points. A good summarisation of whatever you have to offer; fitting on to a non-scrollable page is ideal. It has to be remembered that reading from a monitor is not the same as reading from paper. From a monitor the light is projected whereas from paper the light is reflected. The optical system handles these light sources differently. Keep your text as simple as possible with plenty of white space to make it more readable. Now that we have decided on the presentation layout what is next?

When people are using a search engine to find whatever they are presented with many sites. Assuming that the search engine optimisation has been successful the web design will need something that will attract the visitors to delve deeper into the site. There is a simple trick here; you need to hold the visitors attention on your home page long enough for them to absorb the information on the page. One way of achieving this is to use something to catch their eye; if you can hold them on your home page long enough (30 second plus) you stand a better chance of them reading your page, especially if it is a well laid out non-scrollable page. An eye catching gimmick is more likely to be remembered than the text; hence it is better if the eye catching technique is related to your product or service. A point to remember is that any eye catching technique used must not be too distracting from the message(s) related by the page. So what kind of techniques can be employed in catching the visitor's eye?

Probably the most common technique used today to catch the attention of a visitor is the use of ?swf? files. These can be used to present: video, slideshows and audio. These can be quite spectacular, but remember the more spectacular they are the more distracting they can become to the objective of the web page. Both the web designer and owner can easily be seduced by an overly spectacular presentation in a web page using ?swf? files. I can hear in my head; ?that looks great?, but remember your visitors will probably think the same and forget to read the text or any other presentation on the page. This is a common fault and not always easy to overcome. The secret is in the balance; just how spectacular do you want your home page to be. It is great when someone remembers your home page, but the dangers are that they will not remember what the page or web site was about, only the fantastic video they saw. There will times of course when the total message you wish to impart can be contain solely within a ?swf? file; for instance a toy shop may use this technique to not only attract potential customers but to display the goods they have to sale. The quality and degree of movement that can be afforded by using ?swf? files can be a very powerful tool when used correctly.

A second common method that can be employed to inject movement into a web design is the use of ?gif? files. These are commonly used to introduce movement into text or to present a cartoon type display. As a web designers tool they are more efficient than ?swf? files are they tend to be smaller and therefore quicker to present over the network to the visitor. Although most Internet users in the United Kingdom are broadband users this is not the case elsewhere in the world. Dialup and IDSN connections are still common place in many countries making the transmission latency important. Therefore it is important in a lot of case that the web design has to be such that transmission quantity has to be kept to a minimum, while retaining some form of eye catching technique. This is where the use of a small ?gif? file really comes into its own. There are other methods, e.g. QuickTime files, and it is really the responsibility of the web designer to make the appropriate recommendations to the owner. We now have a home page design concept including layout and an eye catcher, what else can we consider as an important contribution to the design of the home page?

The third element is the colour scheme; this can be critical as psychologically colour can affect mood. One point that is essential here is that no matter the colour scheme that is decided upon, there must be enough contrast between text and background to make reading effortless. If a visitor cannot easily read the text they will move on to the next web site. This is actually a very common mistake made in web designs; one only has to browse the Internet to see evidence of this. The colour scheme should reflect the message the web site is projecting, e.g. A toy shop could use bright yellows and reds, thus displaying an image of fun, or a book store may use mid-browns and greens projecting and image of serenity. It is not ideal just to choose a colour scheme because it is liked; some thought has to be put in allowing an educated decision to be made.

To conclude, three elements of a successful home page have been discussed, each one as important as the other. The page layout has to be designed in such a way that visitors can easily access all the information quickly and easily. Using an eye catching technique can hold the visitors attention long enough for them to absorb the information on the page. It is crucial that the colour scheme reflects the mood the owner of the web site wants. Putting these three elements together should greatly help the success of any web site. All three of these elements should be included as part of the initial plan of the web site with both the owner and the web designer giving much consideration to the points in question. Always think of the target audience.