A homepage headed only “Spaces for the future” leaves a first-time visitor guessing: does the firm design houses, manage commercial property, or sell furniture? Even a strong photograph cannot settle that. The first screen of an architecture practice’s or property project’s site should say what is offered, who it is for, and where it is relevant.
Confusion tends to build across the page: a vague headline, navigation full of internal terms, then a useful next step buried beneath a gallery. Someone arriving from a search result or recommendation may know nothing about the organization. Review the page through their eyes, not those of the team that built it.
1. Leading with a slogan instead of an identifiable offer
“Designing possibilities” may express a philosophy, but it does not tell visitors whether they have found residential design, planning advice, construction management, or space for lease. Name the primary activity in plain language. A supporting sentence can add building types, location, or scope: “Architectural design for housing and public buildings, from feasibility studies through construction support.”
There is no need to list every service above the fold. Give visitors enough to decide whether they are in the right place. If the practice serves several sectors, lead with the shared service and show the sectors just below. If the site is for one development, identify it as an office building, residential project, or mixed-use scheme—and say whether visitors can inquire, apply, or only read about the proposal at this stage.
2. Letting the hero image carry information it cannot convey
A rendering shows form and atmosphere. It does not necessarily reveal whether a project is built, approved, still in design, or purely illustrative. An unlabeled rendering on a homepage can make unbuilt work look complete. Where that distinction matters, put the project name and status beside the image. Give built-project photographs a caption or nearby text explaining their relevance, rather than leaving them as anonymous decoration.
Text over a detailed facade or landscape may also become hard to read, especially when the image crops differently on a phone. Check the mobile composition itself and provide enough contrast across layouts. Keep essential wording as HTML text rather than embedding it in the image, so it remains available when images fail to load and to people using assistive technology.
3. Offering too many equally prominent routes
A homeowner considering a renovation, a developer assessing a site, and a facilities team looking for a designer may all need routes into the site. Twelve competing buttons on the first screen will not help them choose. Give the homepage one primary action that fits its purpose, then arrange the other routes in a clear hierarchy.
For a practice, “View projects” and “Discuss a project” serve people at different stages. Both can be visible without being given equal weight. A property homepage might prioritize “View available spaces” while keeping technical documents and location details easy to find. Use button labels that say where a click leads; “Explore” offers little guidance.
Test the first decision, not just the visual balance
Show the first screen to someone unfamiliar with the organization for a few seconds. Ask what the organization does and what they would select to see relevant work. If they cannot answer, changing a button color is unlikely to help. Look at the headline, supporting text, and labels together.
4. Using navigation that reflects the organization chart
Teams may organize work under “Capabilities,” “Verticals,” or an internal project code. Visitors are more likely to look for services, projects, building types, locations, or information about the firm. Familiar names make a short navigation bar quicker to scan than clever labels that need interpreting.
Group dropdown items by the questions they answer. Completed case studies and properties available to lease may both sit under “Projects,” but they should be visibly separate. Keep menu wording consistent with page headings: someone selecting “Healthcare projects” should not land on an unexplained page titled “Human environments.” On smaller screens, check that the menu can be opened, read, and dismissed by keyboard as well as by touch.
5. Showing impressive work without enough context
A grid of buildings shows visual range, but thumbnails cannot tell visitors whether the team designed a whole building, worked on one phase, or managed a later refurbishment. Short labels can give the building type, location, status, and firm’s role. Where useful, a project page can describe the constraint and the design response without claiming results that have not been measured.
Selection matters more than volume. Five relevant projects with readable descriptions may be more useful to a prospective school client than thirty unlabeled images in a carousel. If the work spans different scales, say so; a small interior project should not appear equivalent in scope to a new civic building.
6. Hiding basic qualification details
Before getting in touch, visitors may need to know whether the organization works in their region, handles their building type, or takes on projects at their stage. They should not have to search every service page for those answers. A concise homepage section can cover service area, typical project stages, and relevant building categories. It can also distinguish the firm’s own design services from work delivered with specialist consultants, such as engineering or cost advice.
Keep that description honest. If the team mainly takes on new-build public projects, treating occasional minor fit-outs as an equal specialty may attract inquiries it cannot usefully serve. A precise scope helps both sides assess fit.
7. Making status and timing ambiguous
Project information changes. A homepage that still calls a completed scheme “coming soon” or promotes an expired consultation can cast doubt on the rest of the site. Dates and status labels are particularly important for planning applications, public exhibitions, leasing, and construction updates.
Say what visitors can do now. “Planning application submitted in March 2025” describes a different stage from “Construction underway”; neither guarantees approval or an occupation date. If availability or milestones change often, point the homepage section to a maintained page on the site and make someone responsible for updates. An automatically rotating banner will not fix stale information.
8. Treating accessibility as a final visual check
An orderly-looking homepage can still be difficult to use. Low-contrast text, headings styled without heading markup, and controls without descriptive names make information harder to find. Alternative text should convey the purpose of meaningful images; decorative images need not repeat adjacent copy. Essential information should not appear only in a video, and motion should not stop visitors from reading a message.
Check the page with enlarged text and on a narrow screen. Can visitors still find the service description, use the menu, and reach the primary action without horizontal scrolling? Move through the main sections by keyboard and check where focus goes. These tests reveal problems that a desktop visual review may miss.
9. Asking for contact before establishing a reason
A prominent “Get in touch” button helps only when visitors know what they would be contacting the organization about. A form placed straight after a slogan, before any explanation of services or experience, asks for commitment too early. Put contact options beside relevant information as well as in a consistent place across the site.
Match the next step to the visitor’s likely needs. Someone considering a complex building may want to understand the design process or see comparable work first. Someone looking for current leasing availability needs a direct route to it. Do not send both to the same inquiry form by default.
A focused homepage review
Review the published page, not just the design file, on desktop and mobile. Work through these checks in order:
- Identify: Can a first-time visitor name the offer, intended audience, and service area from the opening text?
- Choose: Does each prominent button have a distinct, clearly labeled purpose?
- Verify: Are featured projects labeled with accurate roles and current status?
- Find: Can someone reach important project, service, and contact information without decoding internal terms?
- Use: Do the menu and primary actions work with keyboard access, enlarged text, and a narrow screen?
Record where each participant hesitates, not just whether they eventually finish a task. If three people select “Projects” while looking for available office space, the label or grouping needs attention even if they find the listing later. Revise that route and run the same task again before calling the issue resolved.