A website home page should provide a quick overview of who you are, what you do, and what you offer. It is also used to give website visitors clear direction on where they should go and what they should do during their visit. It should quickly tell them what is important about your company, brand, service or product offering.
Your website home page is the most important page on your website. While your incoming traffic will many times arrive through other pages, website visitors will undoubtedly review your home page at some point in their visit.
Does all that sound a bit overwhelming? Well that’s because you’ve not talked to Dora the Explorer.
Dora is the Master of Communication and Navigation
If you have no idea who the heck Dora is, let me give you a quick overview. Dora is children’s cartoon that provides an adventure in every TV episode. In each episode Dora clearly provides directions to toddlers and uses her trusty map to get these little guys to their final destination.
I like to use Dora as an example when talking to web design clients, because she communicates and captivates small children with limited attention spans. She has to keep information explicit and brief. She has to make sure she doesn’t lose her visitors along the way.
Fans of Dora the Explorer (or parents and grandparents of Dora fans) are very familiar with “the map” and Dora’s ability to provide clear directions to toddlers.
Does Your Website Home Page Provide a Clear Map?
As I go through this dialogue with clients I wait until I know they get it. Once they do, I ask them to look at their existing home page and/or plan for a new and improved home page. I ask them if it is succinct and if it is map worthy.
In 95% of the cases, the client realizes they have way too much content planned and that they need to take a step back to figure out what’s really important. Once we all know what’s important, we can design your home page around it.
Take a moment and look at your existing home page or your concept for your new improved website. Would Dora approve of your map and plan? Could it navigate a toddler or multitasking adult to the key areas of your website and convert them as needed?
Why Dora Would be Great for Wireframe Creation and Web Design
Today’s internet user is multitasking and they have limited attention spans. Much like Dora’s audience on the show. People don’t read a home page. Instead they use it to navigate to the most important areas of a website.
She would make sure they understand what is in front of them, she would inform them, while not losing them along the way. She would remember they have short attention spans. She would focus on succinct, clear language all while keep a keen eye on the ultimate goal of conversions.
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Dora is a Latina. According to a Nickelodeon spokesman, “she was developed to be pan-Latina to represent the diversity of Latino cultures”. Initially the character was not planned to be Latina although after an executive at Nickelodeon attended a conference about the lack of Latino representation, the creators were asked if they could include such elements. At first there was hesitancy, but eventually they realized that they had “a great opportunity” and the character was designed as such. Nickelodeon at first did not like the antagonist Swiper, at first with researchers stating that “he was bad modeling and unsettling to kids”; however, the creators felt strongly about the inclusion of a villainous character and he remained in the final show.
