Web applications: how to properly design your home page?

What elements should you use when designing your home page? What objectives should your home page meet? And where should you place the key concerns of your target users?

The home page of a web app is the first showcase of the website – it will set the tone and create the impression of the website and business as a whole. For that reason, home pages are of paramount importance to the designers, project managers and business leaders tasked with creating them.

The main elements of a home page

Certain “standards” or rules need to be followed in order to bring together all the ingredients of a good home page. A home page worthy of the name brings together several elements:

• It presents what the company does
• It succinctly describes and presents the company’s services and products
• It presents the latest news clearly
• Has a prominent newsletter subscription CTA
• A permanently visible and accessible contact button or contact form

However, be careful to not go overboard. The home page is not the place to simply cram as much as possible into. The information displayed on a home page should be selected with great care and through a considered strategy.

The home page guides users to the other pages of the website

The first step to understanding how and why a home page works is to understand that it is a landing page. By grasping this first principle, you’re unlikely to go wrong when configuring the rest of the design.

Before embarking on the arrangement of your home page, ask your team to gather answers to the following questions:

• Who is your target? B2B, B2C, or both?
• What are the objectives of your target group?
• How will the home page provide solutions to the concerns and objectives of your target group?
• What company information do you want to present?

Visitors to your site will probably arrive from different places: they might come through Google, through social networks, or through an external site that links to you in its content.

In our vietnam offshore development center you can find talents that can design the best home page for our business.

The home page must provide valuable answers to user concerns

Most sites forget to put themselves in the user’s shoes. Businesses often want to use their websites talk about themselves, their products and services at all costs – often to the detriment of genuinely engaging and providing value to their target audience. It’s not “you” that users want to hear about – they want you to address “their problems”, their concerns. As soon as they land on your home page they will know whether they are in the right place or not – whether you’re going to be able to meet their need (or not). Bring them the relevant information from in those first few seconds of engagement.

Use your home page to reassure them: “yes you are in the right place, we can help you with what you need.”

Remember, browsing the internet or a specific website is always done the same way. You arrive somewhere, and if the location seems useful, you click on a link to find out more. You then continue moving from link to link as long as the pages are providing relevant or engaging information. As soon as that is no longer the case, users will leave the website and move on to the next one. Your home page should be a platform for accessing more information through a click.

With that in mind, here are some examples of the types of sentences not to display on a home page:

• We design the user experience for your website.
• Discover our content writing offers.
• We can help you reference your website.

Alternatively, here are suggestions of the types of sentences that can work on a home page:

• Do you want to be supported in the design of your website’s UX? Click here to find out more.
• We create the content for your site: pages, articles, white papers, etc.
• Do you want to implement a natural referencing strategy on your website? You’re in the right place.

The difference between what you shouldn’t and should do is that in the former case you are only presenting what you can do. In the second case, you’ve put yourself in your target’s shoes and are already offering them the beginning of a solution – all they have to do is click and discover more of the solution you’re offering to their problem.

Communicate on an emotional level

Trigger an emotion in your visitor – they will remember you better that way. An emotional response will carry a more intense feeling than a rational one, and will make it easier to convey your message. Emotions can be delivered in different ways:

• Through text
• Visual elements: images, videos.
• Sounds: at the click of a button or through background music.

Communicate with the right tone

The tone of voice on your site must also be carefully chosen according to your specific target audience.

The tone you use should integrate your target into the narrative. You should use your voice to include your target within your story so that they become a character in the scene you build. For example:

• Attract more customers by being first on the Google results page thanks to sponsored campaigns!
• Rise above your competitors with a striking website design!

Speaking to your target in their own language helps create closeness. Humans are more sensitive and open to what is similar to them.

Also consider using the power of memory with puns or slogans.

Image copyright: https://www.airbnb.fr/ and https://www.voyage-prive.com/

Seduce, captivate and enchant with design

The design of your web application must serve your voice: it should carry and elevate your content, and not the other way around. A careful choice of colors and fonts is essential. The overall design will set the tone for the kind of atmosphere that prevails on your home page. Visuals speak volumes about a business. Great design can allow you to increase your conversion rates.

A home page serves as the bait that will redistribute traffic to the internal pages of the site. Reassure the visitor that they have landed in the right place by providing them with the immediate answers to their problems, giving them confidence with a professional appearance and a clear voice.

We have many profiles across our various offshore IT development offices: UI / UX designers and project managers that can support you in designing a home page that suits you, efficiently and effectively. Contact us and we can present you our profiles.