Comments on: Breakdown of Great Web App Homepage Design

By: Sugihono Budiman

Sugihono Budiman — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:38:12 +0000

Tom, appreciate your work here. Very interesting concept and it does work when I see it myself.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:25:04 +0000

Just been re-reading this post Tom – some good stuff in here.

By: The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox | Sean M Everett

The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox | Sean M Everett — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:11:15 +0000

[...] Breakdown of Great Web App Homepage Design – Inspect Element [...]

By: Jaye

Jaye — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:51:40 +0000

doh… i tabbed and pressed enter in an attempt to create a newline and it posted

anyway… the remainder of my post was related to other topics around considerations for this homepage experience, web app design, and other factors that contribute like SEO, Adwords Quality Score, etc.

The application I am building, http://www.buyercommand.com, has the primary mission of being an alternative webapp for browsing organic online content (user contributed inventory of items), and more specifically right now eBay listings. I want to promote the use of a dashboard like web page design mixed with an abundance of shortcut key functionality, and a command line input to create a mashup that is a cross between Vi, Google Reader, a portal, and a Widgets… basically a high-end browser for eBay listings.

The design problem I am facing is not only related to user experience, but also to those other factors. In my case, the web application is immediately usable without signup, and it is preloaded with relevant content based on the google search criteria that landed the user there. I want the user to immediately see content in the app that is relevant so that they might engage and start using it, and are not bombarded with details about how the app works or how it improves their efficiency before they see relevant content. Additionally, when I attempt to drive traffic to the app through AdWords and SEO… I discover that people aren’t looking for efficiency apps for browsing inventory, but they are looking for the inventory… so the dilemma becomes keywords, adwords quality score issues, SEO, etc.

I would like to see a followup article that might address some of these other concerns in web application home page analysis.

BTW.. Great article… thanks for the post.

By: Jaye

Jaye — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:32:21 +0000

@tkenny – Did you find many web applications that promote the application as the initial experience, and then provide registration/login/introductions as secondary links/info or present those in the splash screen style?

Reason I ask is this…

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:22:37 +0000

Working at a bank, we have issues with this all the time – this is a nice analysis of the challenges of websites as applications and operating systems. Thanks.

By: KreCi

KreCi — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:34:29 +0000

I definitely will use some ideas in my future web apps. Good design always help to boost sales or just signups. Thanks for this great post.

By: SMiGL

SMiGL — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:22:34 +0000

Nice post. Thanks

By: links for 2009-12-23 « undefined

links for 2009-12-23 « undefined — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:06:22 +0000

[...] Breakdown of Great Web App Homepage Design – Inspect Element [...]

By: Brandon Mathis

Brandon Mathis — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:52:05 +0000

If you’re looking for a great way to design gorgeous custom buttons with CSS3 gradients that degrade nicely, check out fancy buttons: http://brandonmathis.com/projects/fancy-buttons/