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Struggling with some terminology here.

Let's use Twitter as an example. If you are logged in, you have a completely different "home" page from when you are not logged in. How would you refer to each of those pages, so you can distinguish between them?

The usual words index, home, landing could apply to both of them.

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Is this in the context of documentation or on-page anchor text? –  w3d Aug 27 '12 at 22:02
The context is internal naming of pages within the web application. –  pingu Aug 28 '12 at 6:45

2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I've never come across any specific/official terminology to refer to the different pages. To the end user they are usually seen as the same page - the same URL - the home page.

In generic terms, the "home page when logged out" could perhaps be shortened to the "default home page" or "logged out home page" (when there is a distinct difference).

The "home page when logged in" could be referred to as the "logged in home page" or "authorised home page".

I think my favourites would be "default home page" and "authorised home page" respectively.

If this is for your own internal use, as you suggest in comments, then the important thing is to decide on a convention and stick to it. homeDefault and homeAuth perhaps?

In my opinion, a site could have multiple index and landing pages, but only one home. So only home should be used to identify this page IMO.


The homeDefault page shows the full login/register page.

The homeAuth page shows the authorised users twitter feed.

These are indeed very different pages and both accessed via the same URL (no redirection).

(DISCLAIMER: Based more on my own opinion rather than anything authoritative.)

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"Dashboard" is often used for a logged-in homepage, although it implies a display of specific controls or tasks for the user. You could also use "public home page" for the logged out version. –  DisgruntledGoat Aug 28 '12 at 13:11

In my opinion the home page/front page is the master key of the website. The home page should be where the user start and go back to access to all the ramifications of the website (which are not necessarily always available to the user on any page).

For sites that require log-in to allow access to the content:

The home page is the first page the user see after he logged in. The page before should be referred as the sign-in/register page (page with very limited features - website description - logo - log-in box in most of the cases are what the user see.) The log-out page is a redirection to the log-in page.

For sites that do not require log-in:

Most of the content is already available to the user even w/o registration so the home page should be the first page of the site, with a link or a module on the front-page allowing to sign-in to get advanced features. A log-out should bring the user to the home page while the log-in could be handled in different ways: The user may be redirected to a log-in page with user profile/info/stat could be displayed, or the home page could be reloaded with advanced menus/features etc

That's more or less the scenarios I have in mind. Have fun :)

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Does this actually answer the question? –  w3d Aug 28 '12 at 9:14
@w3d I think it does yes, since the question was about the terminology around the concept of "home page" and "log-in page". I tried to give clues on how I identify and name them. But maybe you can explain why you think this isn't an answer? –  danie7LT Aug 28 '12 at 9:42
Well, maybe I've misunderstood, but as I understand it, the OP is asking for concise terms to identify "the home page when logged in" and "the home page when logged out". Whilst you describe what these pages are and how they might fit in with the rest of the site, you do not appear to offer any suggestions as to a possible naming convention. –  w3d Aug 28 '12 at 11:41
I see what you mean. But as you said, at this point it's a matter of how you interpret the question. –  danie7LT Aug 28 '12 at 11:56
w3d is correct in his interpretation of my question, but i appreciate your answer too dani71T. It's my fault for not being explicit enough with my question. –  pingu Aug 28 '12 at 19:09

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