by Marc McNaughton

Splash pages. Ask ten internet experts about them and you’ll get ten different answers, depending upon what they’re selling and how they got into the business. Code gurus will tell you they’re the devil’s work, completely unnecessary and actually detrimental to the viewing of your site. Designers will tell you that they’re absolutely necessary to show your company’s personality and establish a connection with the viewer. What’s the real skinny? Where do you go with these things?

Short and sweet: Use ‘em, but don’t abuse them.

A splash page is a great opportunity to put your brand right into the mind of your viewer without competing with the regular content of your page. You and I both know how valuable that can be—establishing your brand is priceless.

However, where most people (and definitely most designers) go wrong is in making the splash page an ‘experience’. That’s designer language for “a long, drawn-out exposition of my creativity and self-perceived talents.” Hey guys and gals, it’s a “splash” page, not a “never-ending flood of self-gratification” page.

My take is that a splash page should consume about two seconds of your viewer’s time: One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, home page! If your splash page is running more than three seconds—including the load—you’re wasting people’s time on your own vanity and violating McNaughton’s First Rule of Design: “It’s Not All About You.” And just so we’re clear, fellow designers reading this, spare me with the “I put a ‘skip intro’ link in it!” nonsense, okay? That’s just a tacit acknowledgement that you’re going to be pissing a lot of people off with your over-long splash intro. ‘Fess up and put your focus back on what your client needs. Where it should’ve been all along.

So yes, use a splash page, but keep it short, keep it sweet, and keep it focused. One, two, page. It’s all you need to make an effective splash for your brand.

If you'd like help implementing this idea for your own business, please contact me.

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