Application Main Page

Application main pages are typically personalized based on user profiles, interests, and information needs with the intention of presenting the most relevant content and filtering out the not-so-relevant information. However, personalization driven by business rules or some form of social filtering may not be able to accurately predict the information users may need. Thus, applications often offer users customization options to allow them to access to other functionalities within the application—it's just that they are secondary in nature. For example, email applications allow users to manage contact lists even though managing contacts is not its primary purpose. Therefore, when users log in, they are first shown a list of emails, both past and new. The term inbox is appropriate, since these are typically items that users need to attend to when they log in to the application. For many web applications, users need a place that serves as a launch pad for accessing its functions that are rather independent of each other. Although users need access to all functions, they do not need to navigate from one function to another. However, they need a place to return to when they feel lost or disoriented.