首頁所應該達到的幾個目標（1）

When I set out to design a website, I do it backwards. I start with the design of the smallest, deepest element: the story page or search results. Then I work backwards to design their containers: section pages, indexes. Then, lastly, I work on the home page.
當我開始設計一個網站，通常是向后制作的。我最開始設計的是站中最細微的部分：一個故事描述的頁面或是一個搜索的結果頁。然后我開始設計容納這些細小部分的頁面：索引或是頁面集中的區域。接下來所要做的就是最后的步驟——首頁。

I do this because each container needs to adequately set expectations for what it contains. If the home page says one thing, but the internal pages say another, that’s going to lead to a user-experience failure.
我之所以這樣制作的原因是每個容納頁面都需要有預期加入的適當內容。如果首頁表達的是一件事，但擴展開的頁卻是描述了別的內容那就會誤導使用者。

This also means that, by the time work begins on the home page, there’s a lot of momentum going already. And any lingering anxiety is going to come to a head—on the home page.
這還意味著，當你的工作轉移到首頁的時候，大量的任務已經完成。所有制作上的顧慮都來到了頭部——在首頁上（簡單的講，在制作首頁時已經是整個網站制作的收尾工作了）

Home pages are anxiety-inducing for companies. The home page is your first impression. And like the old saying goes, you only get one chance. So home pages themselves have a unique set of design goals.
公司站點的首頁得多花點心思。首頁是你給別人的第一印象。就如一句老話，你只能得到一次機會。所以首頁得有一套獨特的設計目標

Before I get into those goals, here’s a grain of salt. Every site I’ve ever worked on has had strikingly similar traffic trends, and one stands out. Remember that smallest, deepest element I described earlier? This is the atomic element—for a news site, it’s the story page; for a search engine, it’s the search result; for a store, it’s a product page. This page accounts for 60 to 75 percent of all page views on the site. The rest belong to the home page.
在我進入目標前，這還有一些有趣的現象。每個我所工作過的站點都有驚人相似的流量趨勢，而且還有一點是特別突出的。還記得我前面所提到的那寫最細小最底層的元素嗎？這就最基礎的元素——在一個新聞站上它就是詳細的新聞內容頁，搜索引擎中它就是結果的顯示頁，在產品目錄中它就是詳細產品頁。這類頁占整個站點中所有瀏覽頁的60%到75%。其余的就歸首頁了。

This is not to say that the home page is unimportant—it’s hugely important as a first impression. But looking at the numbers, you’ll get far more bang out of tweaks to the atomic element pages than the home page.
這并不是說首頁不重要——第一印象是非常重要的。但你看看數量就會發現這些底層元素是多么的龐大。

That said, let’s look at the unique challenges that home pages present. Remember, when I say home page, I mean the page that lives at whatever.com. The first page a user sees when they show up at your front door.
就是說，讓我們觀察呈現獨特性首頁的挑戰。要記住，我所提到的首頁是指在任何.com上存在的首頁。第一頁就好比是你家的前大門一樣。

Any home page has four main goals, in this order:
任何首頁都應該具備以下四個要求（真正優秀首頁應該達到的目標）：
 

Goal 1: Answer the question, “What is this place?”
目標 1：回答這個問題，“這是什么地方？”
This is, and always will be, the number-one job of any home page. If you ignore this goal, you’ll leave new visitors in the dark.
就是這個，不論是什么網站這都是首先要完成的任務。如果你忽略了它那就意味著你將訪問者遺棄在混亂中。

The first thing a new visitor does when they get to an unfamiliar site is ask that question. If the site does not do a good job of answering it within a few seconds, the user will feel dumb, leave, and never come back. After all, what would you do if you met someone and they made you feel like an idiot? Would you want to hang out with them again?
一位新到的訪問者首先會做的事就是從并不熟悉的站點上得到這個答案。如果站點不能成功地在幾秒內完成這個任務，就會使訪問者無語（就是這個“.......”），然后就是離開并再也不會回頭訪問了。當你遇到某人給你的感覺像個蠢貨的時候你會怎么做？你還會要想到再去粘著這個人嗎？

This is all about making a good first impression.
這就是關于制造良好第一印象的全部

Don’t be afraid to use good old fashioned text to say: “This is who we are, and this is what we’re about.” Then link to a more verbose about page or tour. That way, the people who need that help have a place to go to find it. And make sure the text you use is excited and positive—and makes the reader feel important.
別不好意思去用那些老掉牙的話：“我們是誰，和這是關于什么的。”然后連接到一些更嘮叨的關于頁面或是瀏覽頁。這樣，需要這類幫助的人就有了去向。注意你使用的文字要讓讀者感覺到是重要的。

Don’t be too wordy, of course. Make sure all the words you use are doing heavy lifting. But the explanation has to begin at the top of page one—it’s the most important thing you can do to turn newbies into repeat visitors.
當然要避免過于羅嗦。讓你的文字舉足輕重。但解釋必須出現在頁面的頂部——這是你得到回頭客的重要辦法。

This is especially important for companies trying to do new things. Google can get away with a user-hostile front page because everybody already knows how to use it. But that’s the exception to the rule. If you’re doing something new, sometimes you just have to explain it in plain language, like: Flock is a free, open source web browser.
公司嘗試做新的事物前有些事是特別重要的。像Google之所有可以不用在首頁上不加任何說明是因為幾乎人人都會使用它。但這只是個例外。如果你正在做一些新東西，有些時候你只要做下簡單的解釋就行，像：Flock 是一款免費的，并且是開放源碼的WEB瀏覽器

If a first time visitor to your site’s home page does not understand what it is within three seconds, you’ve failed goal number one, so feel free to skip the rest. The only people who will use the site are the people who already know what it does. Or, ya know, masochists.
如果第一次來你站點的人不能在首頁三秒內明白這是什么樣的站點，第一個目標你就失敗了，只有人們知道這是什么站點才會使用它。

Goal 2: Don’t get in the repeat visitor’s way
目標 2：不要讓訪問者反復走老路
All that said, the second goal is to get out of the way of the users who already know what they’re doing. These are the users like you, the ones who have been here before and already get it.