Results From My Home Page Redesign
Remember when I redesigned my home page? No? I made some changes based on the guidelines provided by usability.gov. Basically I cut down the amount of prose text and clarified the site choices available.
Well, not quite a month has passed, but I wanted to share the preliminary results with everyone anyway. By the metrics that I was targeting on that page (bounce rate and % of exit) the redesign was a resounding success. Here are the numbers:
| Metric | Before Redesign | After Redesign | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time on Page | 00:00:47 | 00:00:38 | -20.30% |
| Bounce Rate | 35.19% | 23.95% | -31.94% |
| %Exit | 33.61% | 23.40% | -30.38% |
So people are spending less time trying to figure out what to do, are less likely to immediately leave (bounce) and are less likely overall to make my home page the last page they visit on the site. I’ll take improvements like that any time. Big ups to the Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines 
Once I get my laptop back from HP, I’ll be looking to see if I can experiment with a few more nuggets from that excellent resource. I’m definitely eying adjustments to some of the navigation pages around here. I’ll be sure to publish the results as I get them.