Comments on: Information Architecture - Why the First Page Comes Last

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:27:21 +0000

Yep, this is exactly how lammazing.com is doing theirs. The site looks half empty right now, but their database, I’m sure, is 90% done.

By: creatweb

creatweb — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 12:04:50 +0000

Forgot to say - once you have written your DB queries for your deep content pages, you can limit them and only extract a few results and display them on the homepage as snippets - this also invites the visitor to look further and hopefully raises their attention.

By: creatweb

creatweb — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:41:23 +0000

Speaking to the client and finding out what they do and what is their most important service / product - and who is their most important client - this will help you guide into the right direction for your site structure.

If a company deals mainly with architects for example, having a link called “architects” on the homepage will greatly please any architect that visits their site, because they immediately feel welcome.

The website structure has to be discussed first before you start developing the site. For industry sites for example - the smaller the number of clicks to the information the visitor wants the better. Your website visitors don’t have any time to look for the information. Give them the information they want - fast.

The most common mistake some companies still make is plastering lots of content on the homepage which is about the company and not about their products. This puts the company in the center rather than the client. I think this should be avoided and a summary of the services and/or products you offer should be highlighted on the homepage.

Websites follow the same structure as authors who write books: They write the book first and then they write the introduction - the first page.

Best thing is to test-drive the site with web visitors who know nothing about the product/service you want to offer on the site.

By: busy

busy — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:24:50 +0000

Good stuff, I’ve been doing it similar to this way for the past few sites I’ve done and it works great!

By: glenngould

glenngould — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 21:10:41 +0000

I think, here we have the two main currents of design theories in art history. What you advice may be called the “baroque” approach contrasting with the “classical” one. Both have ups and downs.

By: alkatraz

alkatraz — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 19:29:39 +0000

Great article!

By: christoph-hoerl.de | Weblog und Homepage von Christoph Hörl | Webdesign - Das Beste kommt zum Schluss!

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:21:32 +0000

[…] Durch SitePoint wurde ich auf den Artikel von Derek Powazek bei A List Apart “Home Page Goals” aufmerksam. Darin erläutert er seine Vorgehensweise beim Aufbau einer neuen Website. Er macht es rückwärts. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten Webdesignern fängt er mit den untersten Seiten in der Hierarchie an und schließt seine Arbeit mit dem wichtigsten Teil, der Startseite, ab. […]

By: anty

anty — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 20:52:35 +0000

Why have I never thought this way? I want to join the party which says thank you for the eye opener ;) thank you!

By: r937

r937 — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 15:50:00 +0000

Honestly, I cringe at the thought of writing highly abstract db queries before you even know what type of functionality you need to build towards.

bingo!

can’t write the queries until the functional requirements are done (i.e. what does a visitor do on the site), but you certainly can start to design the database (if only in your mind, eh)

queries won’t be needed until you actually build the pages, and to mock up the home page, you need only know the functionality, and perhaps a general idea of the permanent data that must reside in the database

By: asmictech

asmictech — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 04:02:36 +0000

Buy the idea also. I see it going inline with the “wire frame your site”. That is , you have static pages indicating aims of each page. then the design proper follows.