AN EXPLORATORY PROFILE OF PERSONAL HOME PAGES: CONTENT, DESIGN, METAPHORS

Abstract

An exploratory sample of 114 personal home pages, drawn from a home page directory available on the World Wide Web (People Page Directory: http://www.peoplepage.com), was analysed to detect patterns and trends in home page content and design. Covered in the analysis were types of informational content included in the home pages; internal organisation and structure of the content, including type and number of hypertext links; miscellaneous content elements, such as ‘sign guestbook’ and number of hits to the page; and physical design features such as photos, motion and audio elements. Metaphors used in the design of the pages and degree of self‐revelation were also considered. The home pages displayed a great variety of content and of specific types of formatting within broader formatting approaches. While some content elements were quite popular, none of them — not even name — was found on all home pages. Nor did the pages evidence reliance on any single dominant metaphor, such as home page as ‘home’ in the sense of domicile. It appears that though certain features may be frequently found in it, the personal home page as a social institution is still very much under development.