6 ms·

Checking your actual landing page ( https://propertywebbuilder.com https://propertywebbuilder.com ) and my opinion is... that it isn't a very good landing page.

by naet 4y ago

Checking your actual landing page ( https://propertywebbuilder.com https://propertywebbuilder.com ) and my opinion is... that it isn't a very good landing page. The sizing and spacing are awkward and blocky, your color scheme clashes with your images, the images are generic and tacky, everything is too big and wide, etc. Maybe because you worked on it you feel that it is a great modern style landing page, but that isn't how it reads to me (and seemingly to other people as well). Maybe you look at a SIMPLER site like https://tom.preston-werner.com/ https://tom.preston-werner.com/ and mistakenly equate that with a "worse" landing page. Actually though this simple page has bullet proof styling, and slapping some stock images on it like you did on your page wouldn't make it better, it would make it way worse. Rather than looking for an external factor like a "mythical uncanny valley" to explain your landing page's poor performance, look inwards at your individual styling and what could be improved.

yupper32 4y ago
Oh jeez, yeah that first site looks like an auto-generated scam/spam website. I'd never enter anything into that website.
- jen20 4y ago
  There’s something about the font stack that is seriously ugly on iOS.
sefrost 4y ago
When I click the "start house hunting now" button it directs me straight to a login page, with an error message. Which is annoying because I just wanted to see what the site actually does.
- marcosdumay 4y ago
  Oh, yeah. Your site not working at all is a known cause of low conversion rates.
- dailybagel 4y ago
  Clicking "Start house hunting now" does all that, _and_ breaks the back button functionality on Safari.
  - the__alchemist 4y ago
    Breaks back btn on Firefox too.
- evandale 4y ago
  This is what stopped me from using the site. I went through the work to find a url for a house, pasted it into the box that claims "Get started by entering the url for a property you are interested in" and get a login screen. That's not quite what getting started means to me.
  - sigg3 4y ago
    Get stopped.
wbsss4412 4y ago
I think their uncanny valley metaphor is still apt in this situation though. They’re trying to take design principles that are common among professionally designed webpages and apply them. They are, unfortunately, doing so quite poorly, and it is leading to a worse result. Edit: typo
- 8ytecoder 4y ago
  Is it though? I’m not even a designer but I can see the color coordination isn’t ideal and a bit harsh. Sections are not delineated clearly. There’s isn’t a clear separation between heading and body in styling. These things are designer 101.
  - wbsss4412 4y ago
    As I said, they are attempting to copy things that are common all over the internet, but doing so poorly. Do you not see how their current page takes design cues from professional pages?
    - setr 4y ago
      That's not really uncanny valley... so much as plainly amateur work. I think its much more likely the greater volume of criticism is due to the fact that as OP gets closer to a known aesthetic, the precision of the criticisms can grow because it becomes more obvious what the goal is, and how its been missed. Whereas a totally unstyled HTML page can't really be criticized usefully, because there is no real goal presented, and so nothing to really contrast against. At best you can say "fix everything".
  - marcosdumay 4y ago
    > color coordination > Sections are not delineated clearly > separation between heading and body Personally, when I open that site, I have no idea what it's about at all (yeah, it's something related to house-hunting). Only when I scroll down an entire screen-height, I get some high level explanation. All the things you noted are there, but I don't think fixing them would solve anything.
sertorius 4y ago
Not to pile on, but there's also a typo right on the first screen: "Lisitings". Also, inconsistent use of periods on bullet points.
pantulis 4y ago
To be fair with OP, comparing Preston-Werner's blog to a landing page is not really an apples to apples comparison, imho, as the purpose is totally different. Still, OP has lots of work to do on that landing page, but not only on the design (there are a gazillion templates for that) but on how does it convey the value of the service it's offering. Also almost all clicks take inmediately to a login page without much explanation.
kristjansson 4y ago
W.. Why does a landing page have a loading bar?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bartread 4y ago
The worst part is that after you've added a property and clicked the big button you're forced to sign up or sign in. I can't even see whether or not the service is useful without creating an account and, with it, yet another vector for unsolicited communication (GDPR be damned, etc., and yes I have trust issues here). Maybe at least give me a taste of something useful before I have to sign up? I was much less bothered by the layout and colours.
- duped 4y ago
  That's actually a feature and not a bug, a little activation energy is a great way to filter out people you probably can't convert to signups. But you still need a demo video at the very least
arduinomancer 4y ago
Yeah that page needs a smaller maximum width and less whitespace It looks way too wide and spaced out on a regular desktop monitor

by naet 4y ago

yupper32 4y ago

Oh jeez, yeah that first site looks like an auto-generated scam/spam website. I'd never enter anything into that website.

jen20 4y ago
There’s something about the font stack that is seriously ugly on iOS.

sefrost 4y ago

When I click the "start house hunting now" button it directs me straight to a login page, with an error message. Which is annoying because I just wanted to see what the site actually does.

marcosdumay 4y ago
Oh, yeah. Your site not working at all is a known cause of low conversion rates.
dailybagel 4y ago
Clicking "Start house hunting now" does all that, _and_ breaks the back button functionality on Safari.
- the__alchemist 4y ago
  Breaks back btn on Firefox too.
evandale 4y ago
This is what stopped me from using the site. I went through the work to find a url for a house, pasted it into the box that claims "Get started by entering the url for a property you are interested in" and get a login screen. That's not quite what getting started means to me.
- sigg3 4y ago
  Get stopped.

wbsss4412 4y ago

I think their uncanny valley metaphor is still apt in this situation though. They’re trying to take design principles that are common among professionally designed webpages and apply them. They are, unfortunately, doing so quite poorly, and it is leading to a worse result. Edit: typo

8ytecoder 4y ago
Is it though? I’m not even a designer but I can see the color coordination isn’t ideal and a bit harsh. Sections are not delineated clearly. There’s isn’t a clear separation between heading and body in styling. These things are designer 101.
- wbsss4412 4y ago
  As I said, they are attempting to copy things that are common all over the internet, but doing so poorly. Do you not see how their current page takes design cues from professional pages?
  - setr 4y ago
    That's not really uncanny valley... so much as plainly amateur work. I think its much more likely the greater volume of criticism is due to the fact that as OP gets closer to a known aesthetic, the precision of the criticisms can grow because it becomes more obvious what the goal is, and how its been missed. Whereas a totally unstyled HTML page can't really be criticized usefully, because there is no real goal presented, and so nothing to really contrast against. At best you can say "fix everything".
- marcosdumay 4y ago
  > color coordination > Sections are not delineated clearly > separation between heading and body Personally, when I open that site, I have no idea what it's about at all (yeah, it's something related to house-hunting). Only when I scroll down an entire screen-height, I get some high level explanation. All the things you noted are there, but I don't think fixing them would solve anything.

sertorius 4y ago

Not to pile on, but there's also a typo right on the first screen: "Lisitings". Also, inconsistent use of periods on bullet points.

pantulis 4y ago

To be fair with OP, comparing Preston-Werner's blog to a landing page is not really an apples to apples comparison, imho, as the purpose is totally different. Still, OP has lots of work to do on that landing page, but not only on the design (there are a gazillion templates for that) but on how does it convey the value of the service it's offering. Also almost all clicks take inmediately to a login page without much explanation.

kristjansson 4y ago

W.. Why does a landing page have a loading bar?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

bartread 4y ago

The worst part is that after you've added a property and clicked the big button you're forced to sign up or sign in. I can't even see whether or not the service is useful without creating an account and, with it, yet another vector for unsolicited communication (GDPR be damned, etc., and yes I have trust issues here). Maybe at least give me a taste of something useful before I have to sign up? I was much less bothered by the layout and colours.

duped 4y ago
That's actually a feature and not a bug, a little activation energy is a great way to filter out people you probably can't convert to signups. But you still need a demo video at the very least

arduinomancer 4y ago

Yeah that page needs a smaller maximum width and less whitespace It looks way too wide and spaced out on a regular desktop monitor