Home Page Planning Checklist

This list doesn't weight the importance of elements by order—in fact, it's alphabetized specifically to avoid promoting any elements over others. (We're tricky like that.) Make sure that one way or another you address all the following elements in relation to your home page's design:

	Copyright information
	Creation or revision date
	Easily identifiable and consistently displayed navigation links or buttons
	Home page icon or logo that can be used throughout the site
	Important information displayed above the fold
	Informative page title in the body of the page
	Informative titlebar text
	Intentional emotional effect or theme created via words, colors, layout, font, and so forth
	Logo or other identifying graphic, such as a family crest or departmental code, that can be shown on subpages and linked to the home page
	Opening page “hook” to catch viewer's interest (home pages generally vary at least slightly from subpages) and  use of “you” text to draw visitors attention
	Privacy policy
	Quick loading approach (It's true—gigantic images make extremely poor backgrounds, and you really don't need to show 90 pictures on your home page)
	Site has a clear purpose
	Subheads break up long text (if necessary)
	Text links display along the bottom of the page
	Upper-left corner is put to good use, preferably with your logo
	Visitors know what steps they can take next beyond clicking the Back button (remember to appeal to all potential audience personalities)
	Your identity or your organization's identity

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