The Home Page

A single setting names the page the web app opens at. It is short to configure and disproportionately important.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Configuration:

• Site Settings — the Progressive Web App and Service Workers option groups

What it does

The configured page is where the app starts, and it is also the anchor for remembered state — the point from which a user’s previous session is replayed.

So it is not merely a landing page; it is the root of the app’s navigation.

Choose the page people actually need

Not a welcome screen, not a menu of everything. The right home page is the one that answers "what do I have to do now" for the largest share of users.

For a field app that is today’s jobs. For a support tool it is the open queue. A page that requires two taps before showing anything useful costs those two taps every single time the app is opened.

It must work for everybody

There is one setting, so every user gets the same starting page. Choose one that degrades gracefully for people with fewer permissions rather than one that shows an error to half your users.

It must be fast

It is the first thing anybody sees and it is loaded on a phone, often on a poor connection. A home page assembling six reports is a home page people wait for, several times a day.

And it must work signed out

Or redirect cleanly to sign-in and return afterwards. An app that opens to an error when the session has expired reads as broken.

Changing it is not disruptive

Unlike most decisions in this category. If the home page turns out to be wrong, change it — installed apps pick it up on their next launch.

Watch what people do next

If most users navigate away from the home page immediately, and always to the same place, that place is your home page. This is the cheapest usability signal available.

Test it cold

From a fresh install, on a phone, on a slow connection, as a user with ordinary permissions. That is the real first experience, and it is rarely what the person configuring it sees.

Worked example

An app originally opened to a dashboard of six panels. Usage showed almost everybody going straight to today’s jobs, so that became the home page; the dashboard moved to a menu item. Time to first useful action fell from several seconds and two taps to none.

Recommendations

• Open at the task, not at a menu.
• Choose a page that works for every permission level.
• Keep it fast — it loads on phones on poor connections.
• Watch where people go next and follow them.