Manifest Development Redesign 2011: The Homepage

[singlepic id=7 w=320 h=240 float=right] Last week I launched a redesign of my freelance site, Manifest Development. I started developing it in late November, and wanted to revamp the site completely from design to content. I got some feedback from my students during one class when we were talking about the importance of a small business’ website, and I wanted to integrate that, as well as some of the new things I learned over the last two years. I’m planning on making this a multipart series, and in today’s installment, I want to talk about the most important part of a website: The Homepage.

The homepage is the first thing a user lays eyes on when visiting a website, so it needs to be good to keep the user interested. You also need to guide the user to where you want him or to go from there. Under the assumption that most of my visitors will already know I’m a web developer when visiting my website, the first thing I wanted to present was what people looking to hire a web developer want to see first: a sample of my work. The image slider (called Nivo Slider, and the best one I’ve used to date) presents a faded screenshot, with a logo and description of four featured projects. Users can read about and visit the sites I’ve done. Underneath that is a little bit about Manifest Development and the first called to action: Request a Proposal.

Ultimately I’d like to start a conversation with anyone visiting my site about their needs and how I can help them. Requesting a proposal is the first step in that process. That paragraph is followed by large icons linking to the 3 most visited pages on my site:  my portfolio, my services, and my contact form. These make it very easy for the user to get to where he or she wants to go. These are the last pieces of content on the homepage- there are three sections, it’s very clean, and I don’t think visitors will get overwhelmed. They will have a good idea about what I do, and then easily go to a page where they can learn more.

The final element I want to talk about is not unique to the homepage, but the user is introduced to it here: my footer. I have a lot of fun designing footers, and really enjoyed designing this one in particular. It’s also received the most positive feedback of any element of my site. The footer serves as a place to offer supplemental content to the user, and I had a clear idea of what that content would be- my contact and social media information, a way to subscribe to both my newsletter and my blog, and the most recent posts from the blog. I ordered them that way, organized each section into an evenly sized and spaced block, and included icons I felt would catch the eye of the user without intruding on the main content. I also used recognizable icons so that the user knows what they link to without having to read anything. The footer stretches across the bottom and is a contrasting color in relation to the main body color, giving the website a definitive end. All and all, I am very happy with it, and think it might be my favorite part too!