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A website I'm working on will have slightly different content for residential vs commercial users. So the user needs to choose which version of the website they want to view.

The best way of doing this seems to be to give them a choice of the two versions on their first visit, and the choice being then stored (cookies) for their next visit. They will also have the ability to change between the 2 versions at any time as well.

Changing between the 2 versions seems fairly easy to implement, a button or drop down in the top right hand corner of each page comes to mind.

The harder thing to implement, is the initial choice. After a lot of thought, a landing 'page' where the screen is split in two, and each side has a bit of text (to help the user decide which class they belong to) and a button to go through to that version of the site. It won't really be a page as the selected (residential or commercial) homepage then scrolls into view, rather than there being a page reload.

I think this isn't too bad an approach, the only issue is the logo needs to be placed somewhere, and I have no idea where to place it, creating a bar at the top or bottom just for that would be strange.

Does anyone have any other interesting ways of giving the user this initial choice between the two versions? Or a way of improving my idea?

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    I find that most sites, don't need two different sites, but simply have different sections. I would make your main page the same, and then have some big buttons for these residential and commercial sections – TruthOf42 Apr 11 '14 at 15:51
  • are usage of residential vs. commercial evenly split? – Chairman Meow Apr 11 '14 at 16:06
  • @TruthOf42 there are differences needed on the home page as well between residential and commercial – Tesla Apr 11 '14 at 16:54
  • @ChairmanMeow Residential is the more important target for the website and would most likely be more used – Tesla Apr 11 '14 at 16:55
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Personally, I like the way then there is a default (most visited) version of the site is shown and there is an ability to switch to another (less visited) version if needed (with "save my choice for future visits" action). It could be done like this:

mockup

download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups

It's better because most of the visitors will get the thing they want (Residental site) immediately, without any questions, etc. While other group of visitors will need to make the decision (only once if there will be an option to save the choice).

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