首页---Home Page Goal---First

written by       : Derek Powazek
translated by : alvar


当我开始着手设计一个网站,我一般不按照常规的从前往后的顺序.我总是从那些最小的,隐藏最深的页面开始,比如一些内容页面和搜索结果页面.然后我才开始设计那些索引页面,最后我做的才是首页.
When I set out to design a website, I do it backwards. I start with the design of the smallest, deepest element: the story page or search results. Then I work backwards to design their containers: section pages, indexes. Then, lastly, I work on the home page.

我之所以这样做,完全是为了充分的表达所需. 如果你的首页和你的二级页面的信息不相符,那么你的这个首页是非常失败的.
I do this because each container needs to adequately set expectations for what it contains. If the home page says one thing, but the internal pages say another, that’s going to lead to a user-experience failure.

这同时意味着,当我开始首页这项费时的工作的时候,我们已经了很多的准备工作,这些备好的材料都渴望着在首页上露面.
This also means that, by the time work begins on the home page, there’s a lot of momentum going already. And any lingering anxiety is going to come to a head—on the home page.

首页应当激发出你对该公司的兴趣,他应当给你留下良好的第一印像.听老人们的没有错,你只有一次机会.所以你必须为首页制定出一整套的目标.
Home pages are anxiety-inducing for companies. The home page is your first impression. And like the old saying goes, you only get one chance. So home pages themselves have a unique set of design goals.

在开始讨论这些目标之前,还有些需要注意的地方.我在很多网络公司工作过,他们的访问量都很大,页面都有其独特的地方.是否还记得开始时我所说的那些很小,很深的页面.他们就像是许多原子-----对新闻网站来说,他们就是故事页面,对搜索网站来说,他们就是结果页面,对电子商务网站来说,他们就是产品展示页面.这些页面加起来,占据了整个网站60%-70%的访问量,剩下的才是首页.
Before I get into those goals, here’s a grain of salt. Every site I’ve ever worked on has had strikingly similar traffic trends, and one stands out. Remember that smallest, deepest element I described earlier? This is the atomic element—for a news site, it’s the story page; for a search engine, it’s the search result; for a store, it’s a product page. This page accounts for 60 to 75 percent of all page views on the site. The rest belong to the home page.

这并不是说首页并不重要,相反他是给人第一印象最深的一环.只看到数字的话,你就会匆匆做出错误的
This is not to say that the home page is unimportant—it’s hugely important as a first impression. But looking at the numbers, you’ll get far more bang out of tweaks to the atomic element pages than the home page.

下面,就让我们来看看首页设计所带来的挑战吧.记住,在下面文章中出现页面的时候,我通常是指的首页.
 That said, let’s look at the unique challenges that home pages present. Remember, when I say home page, I mean the page that lives at whatever.com. The first page a user sees when they show up at your front door.

 以下便是任何首页所应有的四个目标,分列如下:
Any home page has four main goals, in this order:

to be continued~~~~