Day 3 - Design a Landing Page
Well damn, ya girl has no chill. Any time I hear “landing page”, I whip out Squarespace and get started on a new free 14-day trial website. Why keep it at “concept”?
I love designing landing pages! Picking images that correspond to the brand (or better yet, getting to take those pictures!), developing catchy one liners to pull the user in, and placing the CTA (call to action) in the perfect spot in relation to the image and text. Fun stuff, really.
I did do some initial ideating. Originally, I set out to design the most eye-catching page for the most boring product I could think of. Really hoping to sell something for the lifestyle, not just the product. I was thinking either
banana or pen.
I took a lunch break with a group of friends and came back with a more functional idea—
a website re-design for a school.
Fueled with sustenance and caffeine from lunch, I sat down at my computer with a fresh mind and many ideas for different components this site could have:
a CTA in the top right corner, always visible
clear branding with colors and images
enticing one-liners that sell the community and lifestyle
minimizing the header links to 5 or less
carousel-type of components to increase site real estate while not compromising content.
This is what I came up with (in screenshot form):
The above images are screenshots from a landing page that would scroll down to each of these components (not separate pages as they may appear due to this blog layout).
I think the two most important things to note about this design are the CTA and the parent testimonials. The Call to Action in the top right corner is always there for whenever the user is ready to commit to taking a step forward in the process. The parent testimonials immediately follow the first block of the landing page. I think the current existing site does a great job of showcasing the school’s accomplishments (top in the state, A rated, etc.), which is often very important to parents. While this is important to include, I think many members of the community are aware of this school’s prestige. What this site intends to communicate is parent satisfaction with the lifestyle and community this school provides. Therefore, parent testimonials will directly follow the first block.
Something I wanted to add was another CTA button in the grass area in the lower right corner. When I placed a button here, it seemed to conflict with the CTA in the top right corner. I might continue to play around with this placement because it does feel like something is missing from this portion of the design.
Another idea I focused on for this design that differentiates is from the current design is less text. The current site features long bodies of text. Many users will skim that at best. My design features catchy one-liners that appeal to parents’ emotions and allow for understanding at a glance.
If I were to spend more time on this project, I would look at other top schools in the area and see how they are organizing their IA and positioning themselves in the market.
