Bern said:
Someone suggested to me I should have a first page on my site that is simply a full page image with "enter" beneath it. Personally I hate those pages because I really don't see the point of it.
What is the purpose of such a page on a web site?
Most of the entry pages on websites are completely useless and are made by people who still think Web = Book. A book needs a cover, a website doesn't.
It's as bad as those who think that Web = TV... With ads and animations everywhere...
Lau said:
Actually, I had a look at your site earlier, and I didn't even notice those links at the bottom, and just whacked on "enter" the way I do on all sites with a splash page. It's a shame, now you point them out, there's a few nice photos on there. I am notoriously impatient and unobservant, which might explain such behaviour, but I personally would rather see "sub-links" as it were as links from a main page as I rarely pay attention to a splash page. "Skip Intro" is my mantra.
I agree with Lau. Text links at the bottom of the page are usually a repeat of the main navigation links, so most people will overlook those links on your splash page.
cjc343 said:
Splash pages with no purpose other than to create one more click to actual content rank pretty high in my list of web annoyances... not that my list is one most people pay attention to, or, for that matter, is published anywhere. If you want to be nice to me though, and avoid some of the other top items, don't:
Play any noise, sound, music, etc... without explicit user permission.
Use Flash
Disable Right-Click
Disable Left-Click
Use Javascript Alerts when people enter or leave your site.
Use Javascript Alerts unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.
Use painfully-bright colors on black.
Use dark colors on black.
Use light colors on white.
Use similar text colors to whatever your background color happens to be.
Make it necessary in any way for me to remove formatting to actually read your site.
Use invalid *HTML.
Use invalid CSS.
Create links out of random words.
Type all the text in capitals or in alternating caps.
Put up "Under Construction" pages.
Resize the window.
Open a new window.
Use flashy graphics.
Mis-use the language you are writing in.
Put a counter on the page.
Make users scroll sideways.
Couldn't agree more, cjc343. Except perhaps that "Use Flash" should also be item #5, #11, #15 and #18. Yeah, I hate Flash that much.
blaskillet4 said:
I'll take a stab at this one. It depends how creative you want to be about it.
Some people know how to use them, others don't.
I could make an 'Enter' page and take advantage of your browser's caching capabilities. For example, if they're a commonly displayed images/banners/etc., I could paste them on the 'Enter' page somewhere, or hide them [Layers], and when you do enter, they'd already be cached on your browser.
This could give the illusion that your page loads faster than it really should, especially if you have a content-heavy site.
While the idea is nice, that would be breaking your site in a very subtle way: the way pages load. All users know what loading is and sort of expect loading to occur the same way for all sites.
If your "pre-load" stuff, it will seem as if your website is broken (what if I click [Enter] before it's all pre-loaded?)
Unless I misunderstood your idea...
Peyton said:
I would say its for first impressions. A lot of 'net users are new, or relatively new, a nice, pretty front page makes people get that first impression before getting to the nitty gritty of the site.
I think Apple.com is like that, dressed up, sure, but still, its an 'enter' page.
Apple doesn't have an entry page. It's a front page. Huge difference.
Entry page = some design with no real info and no links, you have to choice but to "enter" the actual website.
Front page = website with content, links, etc. You can go anywhere in the site from a front page.
Apple.com has "what's new" content, but otherwise that page is like all the other pages (navigation at the top, copyrights at the bottom, etc).
