My Ideal Home Page

After some inspiration from my good friend Bob, my mind got fixated on the idea of what should be displayed in the home page of foreachgamer.com; so much so that, although I was staring at the television, I missed the majority of a Shark Tank episode.

The home page is crucial (referring to the default page a user sees after they login) when your main goal is to retain members.  When considering what I would want out of my own home page, and keeping the websites current layout in mind, here is my preferred list of features:

1. I want a lot of info, but I don't want it to be cluttered.
2. I want the ability to easily narrow down what I'm seeing based on options (ie. genre, platform, indie vs. un-indie, etc).
3. I don't necessarily want the latest info.  I want the latest info that has interested other members of the website that share common interests with me.  Don't show me the latest indie game on my home page; show me the latest indie game that other strategy enthusiasts are raving about.
4. I shouldn't have to search for content.  Granted, sometimes I enjoy browsing through pages of search results, but that's not what a home page is for.  Give me the greatest of the latest, and I'll find the rest on my own.
5. I should be able to customize it somehow.  There are a lot of ways to accomplish this, but the point is that if you let me customize my home page, it will feel more like home.
6. Along the lines of number 4, I shouldn't have to dig for content either.  It should be at the ready and in abundance, with the ability to narrow content as I see fit.

That's my personal list of priorities for my {feg} home page.  If I'm in the mood for the latest additions to the indie scene, that information should be one click away.  And when I've had my fill of that and decide to watch some Titanfall gameplay videos, I shouldn't have to click my mouse through 3 menus.  Hell, I shouldn't even need to navigate away from my current page.  The content should just load, as if by some sort of black magic, and then go away when I am done with it, returning me to whatever had my focus beforehand.

It seems like a tall-order, but I'm confident that with a lot of hard work and some jquery magic, I can build my ideal home page to my ideal gaming website.  One that has already done the searching for me, and is just waiting to deliver it to me with a touch-friendly-so-i-can-read-from-my-big-comfy-chair-via-my-tablet interface.

On a complete unrelated note, I have decided to dedicate one day a week to prototyping in Unity.  I miss dabbling.   I'll be blogging about whatever I decide to do at eatsleepindie.blogspot.com

Related Links:
Official Website (work in progress): http://foreachgamer.com/
Official Twitter: http://twitter.com/foreachgamer
My Twitter: http://twitter.com/eatsleepindie