The homepage sets the tone.

Posted in Design, User Experience

Every user is unique, so is every website. With every website comes a new experience. And with each experience comes a new learning curve.

Each time a user comes to your website they are taking the time out of their busy life to get to know you. If it’s the first time they have come to your website, they will have to learn how to navigate you site and how to find the content they are looking for.

One of the primary purposes of the homepage is to set the tone for how the rest of the website should look and flow.

Once the user has determined the placement and style of the navigation on the homepage, it shouldn’t change as they progress through the website. For example, if the navigation bar on the homepage is located across the header of the website and has five main categories, it shouldn’t move to the left side of the website and have seven main categories (this also applies to link colors, buttons, and the location of elements such as the login or search bar). This type of inconsistent navigation may make sense when you are designing the website but consider the user first, and strongly consider their attention span.

Take the analogy of driving a car, you don’t want to learn how to drive it the first time only to find out half way down the road you have to learn how to drive the car all over again.

2 Responses to “The homepage sets the tone.”


  1. January 6th, 2009 at 5:35 pm


    This notion has recently been disputed by Jared Spool. I tend to agree with him.

    http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2005/09/15/consistency-in-design-is-the-wrong-approach/

    A lot of people don’t actually learn the site at all. They see the options and choose one. On the next page they do the same.

    Comment by David Hamill

  2. January 6th, 2009 at 6:57 pm


    Hi David,

    Thanks for the feedback. However, the point that I believe Jared is trying to make is different than the point I am trying to make.

    He is against designing websites consistently regardless of the end user (i.e. a website for plumber should navigate the same as a website for a law firm), and I would also be against that.

    What I am implying is that when you define your navigation on the homepage, make sure it stays the same throughout the entirety of the website. Just like the Avis.com example, they didn’t just change the design of one form on the website, they did it to all the forms on the website.

    Comment by Doug