Chapter 6. Bootstrappin' Business

We've built our portfolio site. Now, it's time to flesh out our portfolio with some projects that demonstrate the range of our powers. Let's now turn to designing a complex business home page.

Take a moment to survey the home pages of successful businesses, such as these:

• Zappos (http://www.zappos.com)
• Amazon (http://www.amazon.com)
• Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/)
• HP (http://www.hp.com)

While each has its own approach, what these sites have in common is that they manage considerable complexity.

We can get a grasp of some common features by breaking the website down into three categories, as follows, based on regions of the page:

• Banner/masthead: This part contains the logo, main navigation with drop-down menus, a secondary or utility navigation, and a login or register option
• Main content area: This features a complex layout with at least three columns, if not more
• Footer: This is filled with multiple columns of links and information

Let...