blink design library

Asking users to self-identify

I recently visited the web site of a company that provides requirements-management software. Their home page consisted of exactly two "enter here"  links and a check box (to remember my "enter here" preference). This home page demanded I enter the site as either and "IT user" or a "business user." There were no other navigation options; I had to make a choice:

What is particularly interesting about this choice is that it not only forces me to self-identify as one or the other, it also implies some sort of conflict/unrest between the two. The IT user and the business user look like they are having some sort of stare-down. Honestly, I didn't want to choose either one! But aside from that, I truly didn't know which I should select.

Sometimes, it makes sense to organize information by user type. College sites do this (parents, students, faculty and staff...) as do health insurers (members, employers, providers...). These are distinct groups with distinct informational needs. For example, the homepage of Georgetown University prominently features self-identify links in the center of the page, but provides other topic categories on the left side of the page:

Forcing users to self-identify should never be the sole gateway to the site's information. If people can't identify with any of the options, they will feel stuck.

Link back to home

Amazon has a treatment of its logo that I haven't seen before. When you roll over the logo, it indicates that it  links back to home:

Normal state


Rollover state

This would seem to be helpful, but I wonder if practically it really is. We've found in testing that while some users understand a site logo typically navigates back to home, many users don't make this association (and therefore never think of clicking or rolling their mouse over the logo). So, I suspect this design approach is helpful only as additional feedback for users who are inclined to click the logo to begin with.

The experience for new vs. returning users

A number of web services create two entirely separate site experiences for new vs. returning users. The new user experience is typically focused on the benefits of the service and getting people to sign up.

For example, compare the different home page presentations for new vs. existing users on Tastebook. New users are presented with clean, simple page with just three main options: How it Works, Look Inside (a product tour), and Get Started.

Below is the "logged in" version of the Tastebook home page--the starting point for actually using the service.

LinkedIn uses a similar approach, with a super-simple home page for new users:

The advantage of this approach is that it eliminates options that aren't functional for users who haven't yet signed up for the service.  It also makes a crisp distinction between the web site for the product and the product itself (a distinction that exists, of course, for desktop software).