Your homepage is your website’s storefront. Just as an enticing storefront lures customers into a physical store, a good homepage should captivate your website visitors from the moment they arrive. It should effectively guide users toward their goals while staying true to the brand’s image.
But what exactly makes a homepage captivating and effective? It’s definitely not just about throwing elements on a page and hoping for the best. To ensure that your homepage effectively captivates visitors and drives desired actions, you should follow some fundamental principles.
If you’re wondering what these principles are, you’re in the right place. This article outlines ten essential principles to help ensure you nail your homepage design every single time. So, if you’re ready to dive in, let’s get started. But first, let’s explore what a good homepage looks like with some real-life examples.
Try to implement as many as these real-world examples of homepage design as possible within your organization.
Once a visitor lands on your homepage, you only have a few seconds to convince them to stay. So, don’t waste any of these precious seconds. In simple terms, tell them who you are, what you offer, and who your audience is.
Also, remember that your primary aim is to generate sales. So include a compelling call-to-action (CTA) to get users to act. Use action-oriented words like “get,” “buy,” “contact,” and “Learn” to encourage immediate engagement:
Bolt’s homepage immediately tells you who it is: an all-in-one mobility app. It also lets you know that it offers the convenience of being picked up by a top-rated driver in minutes, ensuring a comfortable ride to your destination. In addition, the prominent CTA “Get the app,” encourages immediate action.
This homepage design is effective as within moments of landing on it, you can tell if their service is for you.
Your homepage should resonate with your audience. You can do this by using words and images that are familiar to them. Avoid using unnecessary words that don’t add meaning to your copy or address your audience’s challenges:
Netflix’s value proposition is clear as day. This makes it easy for a potential customer to know if Netflix’s service is for them within seconds of landing on the homepage. Furthermore, using familiar movie posters as the background image speaks directly to their target audience.
People visiting your site are most likely looking for a solution to a problem. Put that solution front and center. Let your value proposition do the talking by articulating how your product or service solves a problem or fulfills a need for your customer:
Anyone looking to convert new customers and increase growth will know they’re in the right place once they land on Mailchimp’s homepage. Its value proposition offers a direct solution to a problem its prospective clients struggle with.
No one wants to spend time trying to figure out how your site works. So, make your homepage easy to navigate, with intuitive menus and clear pathways to information. Anyone visiting your site for the first time should be able to find what they’re looking for without any hassle:
When users first visit Medium’s homepage, they immediately know what steps to take because there are only a few possible actions. With only one core action — signing up, and a clearly labeled navigation menu, there’s little room for confusion.
Visual appeal is crucial because it creates a positive first impression, which is necessary for keeping visitors on your site. While you may argue that visual appeal is subjective, some design practices can universally enhance the attractiveness of a webpage. These include using a harmonious color scheme, a balanced layout, and ensuring consistency in design elements:
Airbnb’s homepage shows how careful design choices can lead to a visually attractive outcome. The clean and organized layout, consistent use of colors and styles, and high-quality images create an inviting appearance that motivates users to explore further.
Your homepage should reflect your brand’s identity, values, and personality. You can achieve this by using easily identifiable branding elements such as logos, fonts, color schemes, and imagery to reinforce your brand identity and create a cohesive experience for visitors:
Upon landing on Tiffany & Co.’s homepage, you’re welcomed by the iconic Tiffany blue hue, a hallmark of the brand. The background image featuring the familiar Tiffany box further adds to the sense of luxury and elegance that defines the brand.
Your customers don’t stay the same; their needs evolve. Therefore, your homepage design and content should evolve too. It shouldn’t be a one-time creation but rather a dynamic space that adapts to changes, reflecting the evolving needs of your users:
At its core, Dribbble is all about showcasing creative work and connecting designers to clients. However, its value proposition emphasizes these two aspects of its core function at different times, based on the users’ needs.
In December 2023, its value proposition highlighted its role in facilitating the hiring process. Whereas, in May 2024, the focus shifted to inspiration, highlighting itself as a destination for design enthusiasts to discover creative work.
You want your users to feel like your site was created with them in mind. This means understanding your audience and creating a homepage design that caters to their expectations and behaviors. You can achieve this by incorporating user feedback, performing usability testing, and adjusting your design based on real user interactions:
Google’s search engine does this exceptionally well. First, there’s no room for confusion as the main focus is the search bar. But besides the homepage being clean and simple, it also offers personalization options like various language settings to cater to users’ needs.
Now that we’ve shown you what a good homepage looks like, let’s discuss ten essential principles to help you design a good homepage.
The following ten principles will help ensure that you have an effective homepage design.
Your brand name and logo should stand out so that users see it as soon as they visit your homepage. While this doesn’t mean it should take up more space than is necessary, it should be more prominent than the surrounding items. As you can see from the examples we shared, the upper left corner is usually the best placement for languages that read from left to right.
Avoid hiding your brand identifier or relying solely on a purely graphic logo, particularly if your brand isn’t well known. This can make it hard for users to identify your brand when they land on your homepage.
Succinctly highlight what your site or company does that’s valuable to the user and how you stand out from competitors. Ideally, your value proposition should let users know why they should choose your company/site over your competitors. Bolt explicitly states what you stand to gain from using its platform.
Avoid using vague or generic messaging such as “Making the world a better place.” Not only does this confuse your users, but it also makes them less likely to trust your brand.
Identify the main action you want users to take and emphasize it to give users a clear starting point. If there is more than one core action, use a visual hierarchy to organize them in order of importance. And remember to keep the core tasks to a minimum (1-4). Medium illustrates this principle perfectly by focusing on only one core action – signing up.
Avoid giving equal visual weights to multiple elements on your homepage. This makes it difficult for a user to know where to focus.
People are drawn to pictures, so using generic or unrelated images can distract them from what’s important. Only use graphics that convey real content. In the Netflix example, the background image shows posters of the movies you can watch on Netflix.
While it’s important to maintain visual consistency across your website, introducing a slightly different visual design on your homepage can serve as a navigational signpost for users. All the homepage examples we shared feature a distinctive hero section. This visual difference can help users identify their starting point when they return from exploring other parts of the site.
Use grid systems and layout techniques to maintain a visually balanced appearance on your homepage. With proper content structure, consistent spacing, and alignment, you can create a visually appealing design that’s also intuitive. For example, Airbnb’s homepage uses consistent spacing, clear content hierarchy, and alignment to create a visually balanced and intuitive design.
Use labels that focus on the value to the customer, rather than their function for your company. For example, Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” button takes the user directly to the first-ranked page for their search query. Other alternatives like “Our top picks” and “Google’s best match” would have shifted the focus from the user’s experience to Google’s selection process. Ask your customers what they search for when they need certain information and use their exact words.
When designing a homepage, less is more. Putting too many elements on your homepage can lead to visual clutter and diminish their impact. If you want a feature to stand out, place it in a prominent location rather than repeating it. However, there are some situations where repeating content can be helpful. In the example from Medium, the sign-up link appears twice — in the main body and the navigation menu but with different wording — “Start reading” and “Get started.” This approach ensures that the users can notice the sign-up option without it feeling redundant.
Ensure that your main navigation area is easy to spot. An ideal position is right next to the page’s main content. For example, in all the examples shared, the navigation area is located at the top of the page’s main content.
Above the fold refers to the area of your homepage that users can see on the first screen without scrolling. Important elements such as your main call to action and value proposition should appear in this area. If critical elements appear outside this view, use visual cues to let users know there’s more. With Tiffany’s & Co., the partially cut-off hero graphic is a subtle cue to indicate that more content is available below.
Where possible, completely avoid placing key elements below the fold. This minimizes the risk of users overlooking important content due to unclear visual cues.
Your homepage is often the first interaction users have with your site, setting the stage for their entire experience. Therefore, it’s your one chance to make a positive first impression. While the principles covered in this article apply to web design in general, they’re especially crucial when designing your homepage to ensure you put your best foot forward.
But remember, design is not a one-size-fits-all approach. While following these principles can significantly enhance the user experience of your website, you must also tailor your design to your users’ specific needs. This is where user testing and field studies become invaluable. By combining user-centered design with these principles, you can create a homepage that truly resonates with your target audience and helps you achieve your business goals.
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