Looking at the homepage for your SharePoint site, you will see the following:
- The navigation pane. You can access the various pages for the site. Documents will take you to the files contained within the site. Notebook is the various OneNote notebooks associated to the site. Conversations will take you to the mailbox for the site (Note: there is an address, and a shared mailbox associated to the site). Pages are the various created pages stored within the site. Site contents will view the entirety of everything contained within the site including, but not limited to: All of the files(documents), custom pages, news feeds, and various assets associated to the site.
- The news section. While this is not an immediately supported feature by OIT, you have the ability to create posts for user's of your department site. You may consider notices here for reminders, or updates to the various workings of your department, or even acknowledge exceptional contributions from your peers.
- The documents section of the homepage is a brief outline of the files stored within the SharePoint site. You can click the "See all" link at the top of the section to navigate directly to the files contained within.
- The Activity section is a brief review of the most recent changes that have taken place within the site.