A few weeks back, the BBC published a report about Jakob Nielsen's latest findings about how web users operate. As Kristine pointed out, it had a dumb, dumb headline, but there were several real gems of information in there.
Here's one every web editor and magazine publisher should study and think about:
In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.
All that time you're lavishing on your web site's front page? Only a quarter of your visitors are using it. And that number is shrinking every day.
Every single page in your site is your home page. Start designing (and writing) for that fact.
June 6, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply
There was a good manifesto on this from Change This a few years ago, which has a very similar argument to the one you point to.
The authors suggested that we should humanise our sites as much as possible drawing people in through the stories of the people involved in the organisation and interaction with real people.
June 6, 2008 12:57 PM | Reply
Agreed and while we're at it - enough with the Flash already.
June 6, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply
Very good point. And any web editor looking at metrics will be acutely aware of how little traffic goes to the homepage.
The homepage emphasis is a hangover of the print front page. The shop window into your product. Now every piece of content is the shop window.
That said, don't discount personalisation. 'My homepage' on a site - where i select all feeds - is more relevant for me. But how much mileage is there in that? I may as well use my own RSS feed.