Lately, I’ve been questioning the purpose of having a “home page” of my site when my blog is the area of the site that’s updated the most and contains the most content (and, arguably, is the most interesting). Of course, the home page gives the site context and describes each section. But is that necessary? Or does each section title in my navigation speak for itself? (Names like about, photos, quotes, etc. all seem like pretty obvious descriptors to me, at least.) So I’m torn.
The question is: Should I essentially eliminate the home page of my site by putting in a redirect to life? (See danrosan.org and swerdloff.com for examples.) Or should I leave it alone? Most blogs these days double as a site’s home page, so my site architecture may be a bit archaic in that sense.
In the world of blogging, has the concept of the home page gone the way of the 8-track? (OK, so now I’m beginning to sound like Carrie in Sex & the City as she types away on her PowerBook pondering relationships.)
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jordan // Sep 3, 2003 at 12:26 pm
The homepage is dead, long live the Blog! Just have one entry at the top “if this is your first time here…” that takes them to what once was the homepage which becomes more of a site description. That’s how Wil Wheaton does it, and we all love and ador him!
2 Silus Grok // Sep 3, 2003 at 1:35 pm
You currently have 14 items in your side navigation… many of which I would classify as being as important as, say, your blog or your consulting business. So I would have to say that just ditching the current splash page for the blog, as-is, would not be good design.
Suggestion: why not elevate certain pages/sections to primary navigation level? Perhaps “Personal” “Vassar” “Consulting” “Contact”? These four would reside in a horizontal format at the top of each page (highlighting their availability to all visitors — particularly important for the consulting business — then I would organize the side navigation to show the new prioritazion:
PERSONAL
overview
life, a blog
dogs
photos
writing
archives
rss feed
COLLECTIONS
overview
quotes
favorites
DVDs
amazon wishlist
VASSAR BLOGS
CONSULTING
overview
clients
services
portfolio
CONTACT (& GUESTBOOK)
Finally, I would move the side nav up to the top of that sidebar, as it gets lost currently (I didn’t even know it was there until just now).
3 gabe // Sep 3, 2003 at 1:39 pm
Thanks so much for the great input! I really appreciate your taking the time to provide me with such great ideas.
4 Silus Grok // Sep 3, 2003 at 2:14 pm
My pleasure.
: )
Sorry the UL and LI elements got so wacked in the translation… also, that first sentance should read:
“You currently have 14 items in your side navigation… many of which I would NOT classify as being as important as, say, your blog or your consulting business…”
Another idea: I never noticed the SEARCH feature, maybe you could use a little CSS to highlight the text entry area?
Over at DC HARRISON, they use CSS to do just that in their CONTACT section… really handy.