Writing an Introduction Paragraph

On a website, you should think about your home page as the introduction paragraph of your essay.  However, we are building a website, not writing an essay.  That means that to make your writing as effective as possible, you'll need to write for your new format.

Forget the official format of an introductory paragraph and instead think about the purpose of an introductory paragraph.  In my thinking, you include an introduction in an essay for two main purposes:

• to hook your reader and 
  
• to introduce your topic

How can you grab your reader's attention quickly with a website?  What tools do you have available to you?  How can you use:

• words 
  
• pictures  
  
• links
  
• video 
  
• color
  
• design 

...to catch your reader's attention and get them interested in your topic from the very beginning?

Here's one example I found: The Water Project website.  

What do you notice about their website?  How do they grab your attention?