Ask HN: Review my "coming soon" page
scholr.ly
scholr.ly
I'm not sure how academics would be on misspelling "scholar" even if it's a clever URL hack. It's sort of like wearing a suit with sleeves too long and pant legs too short to your job at a fashion designer - it just doesn't fit in that context. That's just my opinion.
Also, there's another site at scholar.ly that has its own coming soon page.
While instinctive for many HN'ers, remembering to misspell and use .ly is an unnecessary burden for people like parents and non-tech friends. In my case, the average age of someone in my market is 50+ so I went with a .com.
A disclaimer is that I do invest some in domain names on the side. Unfortunately I hadn't bought this particular name years ago so had to pay $1500 for it.
The "email-subscribe" widget is ugly and gray. The border is too thick on the "email" and the slightly rounded "subscribe" box feels like a parody of web 2.0.
"to get updates on our progress" should not be on a separate line from "subscribe" but in general it should not be there at all. Think of a more concise way to say what you want to say.
The "h" and the "r" in your logo font make me want to punch a baby even though said baby has done nothing wrong. I don't know what font that is but it makes me feel kind of like the bondage rape scene in Blue Velvet makes me feel.
"We're taking it back" should not be on a separate line from "The internet was built...", nor should it be in bold.
So inasmuch as "coming soon" pages go, you managed to incorporate all the things you're supposed to have while simultaneously making them all very unpleasant. But why is this posted here? Why does it matter? Is this an attempt to make us subscribe and build up your prelaunch audience? Or are you a designer trying to master the art of coming soon pages? Otherwise I don't know why you'd care enough to ask for a critique.
(Also: WAS the Internet built for universities? What does that even mean? Do you mean the old old Internet that started as a university project? Or do you mean 2005-era Facebook? I am so confused. Please explain.)
The wishy-washy blue is being a/b tested to settle a bet- usually we're a more scholastic brown. Working on your suggestions, thanks =)
(If it's something you'd rather keep secret, I understand, but can't exactly help much. Or if you want to talk privately, send an email and I'll try to get back to you quickly.)
Seems like a bit of a waste getting the HN community to review some colours and fonts though. If you told us a little more about the idea maybe we could give you feedback on that instead? I mean, the coming soon page is pretty insignificant with respects to the idea itself, no?
The design sucks, but at least it's functional.
You should explain what the product does (ie. put some variation of the above text on the page?).
Also, maybe you should consider a "better" domain name...
I don't love the design- we're still working on a logo- but is there anything in particular jumping out at you?
Feel free to give me an e-mail if you want a screenshot too.
I have no idea what you do, why would I want to get updates on your progress?