by David Hockenbroch

Created on: February 24, 2009

Your splash page will communicate something to your user, but if you aren't careful about its use, your intended "welcome" could turn into a "go away"!

One thing you must keep in mind when setting up a splash page is that the user is visiting your website to find some sort of information, and you are intentionally putting something between them and their information. It must perform well and be worth looking at, or you must provide a way to get around it. In any other case, your splash screen can drive traffic away.

Splash pages usually fall into one of three categories: introductions, notifications, and embellishments. An introductory page provides information about the website that a new user may want to know. A notification exists to let a user know about some change to the site or to their account. Embellishment pages' only purpose is to make the website look nicer.

An introductory page provides a few nice benefits. This type of page would show up if the user has not been to the website before. If using the website requires the user to follow a specific process, you can show them that process on the introductory splash page. If there is an age requirement to view your website, this type of page can be used to verify that information. Many websites use these pages and have some method, perhaps using cookies, to tell whether or not the user has seen that page before so that on a repeat visit, it won't come up again. The only downside is that there is an extra step between the user and the content they were trying to access, but if it helps them get their information, that is excusable.

A notification splash page is similar to an introductory splash page, except that it alerts the user to changes that have been made to the website. They can be treated similarly to introductory pages, but it may also be a good idea to only keep these pages up for a certain amount of time after the changes have been made. After a while, the vast majority of the people who have not already seen the splash page will be those who are new to the website and will not perceive the update as a change at all anyway. Again, the downside is that there is another page between the user and their content. If you want to avoid using a splash page for this, consider posting a link to the information on the home page or emailing the users. These methods may not be quite as effective in guaranteeing you that the users will see the information, but they can be almost as effective as the splash page.

Embellishment pages are the least necessary of all. They exist only to make the website look nicer, which means they are often graphics-intensive. Many include some sort of animation, often using Flash. While they do enhance the appearance of the website and many users will enjoy them, it is considered courteous of the designer to provide a handy "skip animation" link, especially for the users with slower Internet connections. For those users, waiting for these splash pages to load can be a tremendous hassle.

All in all, splash pages are a great tool as long as they are properly implemented.

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