Good Design Starts With the Homepage

I know there’s a lot of controversy over which part of your blog is most important.�� Some people say that because most of your traffic is going to come from links to your individual posts through either search engines or links from other blogs.�� Others say that because one of the most clicked links on your website is the “home” link, the homepage is the most important detail you should focus on.

While I don’t want to negate the importance of individual post page design, I personally find the homepage to be where you should spend the majority of your time designing.

The reason is simple (at least in my mind).�� Once the homepage is taken care of, single post pages can be taken care of based on your homepage design.

See, web design is all about structure.�� A “wireframe” if you will.�� And if the structure of your homepage is in order, it can be copied (at least partially) for the structure of the single post template.

For instance … if you are designing a blog homepage, chances are you’ll have a header, navigation, a content column, and some sidebars.�� Work on the homepage … get the layout hammered out … then use that layout as a guide for your single page template.�� Replace “recent comments” with “popular posts”.�� You get the idea.

I’m not saying one is more important than the other … I’m just saying to start with the homepage, and let the other page designs follow from the way your homepage flows.

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