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‘Enter Site’ Screen

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May 17.2004

Hi

I’m trying to talk one of the guys out of writing an ‘Enter Site’ screen…..I’m sure that I’ve seen/heard a statistic that this causes people to leave, rather than enter!!

Personally, I think that a screen with a few images and an Enter button has to be one of the most futile screens on the web and they tend to make me ‘not enter site’!! They annoy me in the same way as Flash Intro’s!! I think if I’ve typed in the address of a site…I want to be there and don’t need an additional mouse click!!

Surely, the only time an enter site screen is really needed is where there is some sort of disclaimer (adult/offensive content or whatever).

I was hoping that someone may be able to direct me to a link (or links!) that may have some hard statistics to back up my theory!

Hope I’ve not offended anyone by asking this!

Thanks a lot!

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10 Comments(s) ↴

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@johndoe190May 17.2004 — I cant direct you to statistics but im of same opinion as you. Users come to your website to browse your content, its the content their interested in.
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@PhillMcMay 17.2004 — Totally agreed. Point your friend here and let him see how much 'doorway' pages are hated! ?
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@spufiMay 17.2004 — Intro/Enter pages waste time. They waste the time of the person who creates them, and they waste the time of the person who has to get past them for what they really want.
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@rhsundergroundMay 18.2004 — agreed. just tell your friend that over two thirds of all sites that have doorways get decreased hits (don't quote me on that - i just made it up) and you should take him to a bunch of sites that have doorway pages and show him how much they suck.
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@vivekmenonMay 18.2004 — ?

Intro screens are a [B]waste of time[/B] for both the [U]developer[/U] and the [U]visitor[/U], not to mention the bandwidth wasted...

Some visitors with older browsers can't view Flash intros. Others (especially repeat visitors) are annoyed by constantly having to watch it to get to the page they need.

I'm all against them.

Check out this survey.


[URL=http://www.devwebpro.com/devwebpro-39-20030627DesignPeeveReaderSurvey.html]Reader Survey[/URL]


By the way, for getting the stats, why don't we put up a poll here?
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@screaming_banjoauthorMay 18.2004 — Thank you all for your opinions, I did worry that I may offend people that actually write these screens....it's good to know that many of you are with me that these screens are an abomination!!

I've mailed the guy the link, hopefully he'll read it and learn!

Sadly, a marketing guy that got sent on a 3 day Dreamweaver course and is going to redesign the company website...with me providing support when he gets stuck! He seems to think that if it looks pretty and works in IE, that's all that matters! Personally I find it more than a little worrying that he's going to write the site, but these decisions are made by people higher than me!! Accessibilty/usability don't seem to come into it.

Thanks again!
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@Robert_WellockMay 18.2004 — Don't worry Splash Screens are rather pointless in this day and age anyway what's the site in question a URL would be nice.

Remember it is a legal requirement to follow the UK DDA laws when designing commercial websites, it probably also applies to intranets to a lesser degree.
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@MCP_MediaMay 18.2004 — [i]Originally posted by screaming_banjo [/i]

[B]Sadly, a marketing guy that got sent on a 3 day Dreamweaver course and is going to redesign the company website...with me providing support when he gets stuck! He seems to think that if it looks pretty and works in IE, that's all that matters! Personally I find it more than a little worrying that he's going to write the site, but these decisions are made by people higher than me!! Accessibilty/usability don't seem to come into it.



Thanks again! [/B][/QUOTE]If he was a good marketing guy, he would look at the numbers. I often work in marketing, in fact, it is a huge portion of what I do as a web developer, designer, consultant. Good marketing is about testing, analysis, and execution of the best plan. Bad marketing is a few slicksters in a room saying "I got an idea" followed by a "Let's do it".

Gently remind your marketng manager that the numbers will drop, he will see lower conversions, and his brand will suffer if he doesn't provide quick and efficient access to the resources that this website has to offer. Statistically speaking, the less clicks to get to the form, the higher the conversions. period. An extra click is just shaving points off of the bottom line. Splash screens are terrible marketing and rarely ever used by companies with a big enough marketing budget to know better.
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@DaveSWMay 18.2004 — 
  • + google won't find any content on the first (and most important) page.
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    @screaming_banjoauthorMay 18.2004 — Yep, I read some stuff on Search Engine Optimisation that pointed out that google wouldn't pick up this type of page.

    I didn't put the url in as he will be redoing an existing site, so it's not actually up yet..so far, no documentation and no planning.....just a collection of meaningless screens without structure! I keep hoping that he'll get fed up with it and pass it to someone else that knows what they're doing as ultimately I'll probably get it all to fix!!

    Thanks!
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