There’s a little game I play. When I’m thinking of one Website, but my fingers type in the address of a another, I figure it’s the Universe’s way of telling me there is something for me to check out there. Today I thought I was typing “siteIQ.net” (looking for a recent blog about Microsoft), but the Universe sent me over to “Microsoft.com”. I don’t consciously go out to Microsoft.com often because I rarely find anything noteworthy. But today, the Universe didn’t disappoint.

At first glance, Microsoft.com has only one home page—just like every other Website on the Internet. But this view changes with a click on one of the colorful boxes marked for Microsoft’s target audiences. Then the entire home page rotates producing an entirely new page of information targeted to the selected audience.

To some of you, this approach may smack of cheap theatrics destined for the design trash bin. You may be right. But this concept also delivers some pretty interesting benefits worth thinking about:

It allows Microsoft.com to deliver 4 home pages in one piece of real estate. Any Web team will tell you they have reams of content that stakeholders want to put on the company’s home page. For most teams, putting 4 pages of content on the home page is a pipe dream. For Microsoft stakeholders, it’s actually possible.
Everybody wins. Home users don’t want to troubleshoot their .Net Framework, and developers don’t want to learn how to send Grandma photos. With this home page approach, every audience gets the information that interests them—and none of the information that doesn’t.
It’s a pretty sexy implementation. Click on a box and the page seamlessly rotates. It’s slow enough that you see the change, dramatic enough understand what just happened — but not so sluggish or jerky that you think your browser had a seizure.

Microsoft.com’s home page concept may just be another example of a Website team using technology because they can. Or it might be one of those ideas that’s a bit ahead of its time. But put in the hands of a team of great designers and home page content strategists, this 4-in-1 home page design could really sing—and change how Web teams view their home page space.