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I have thought the longest to build a replica of Calendly as a practice. And this got posted on front page.

Anyone know way a guide to make a landing page like the OP has?




Short form:

1. Focus on advantages and benefits of your product straight on.

2. Do show your product. It’s hard and difficult to keep it up to date, but the value outweighs the cost.

3. Use short memorable phrasing, but expand as necessary.

4. If your product has nerd value baked into it (e.g. some powerful protocol that mainstream competitors do not implement) do make it a major feature but explain the benefits to the uninitiated (“we support JMAP, the more powerful alternative to IMAP that allows you to use X app and service”)

5. On the visual side: keep it simple and add a single gimmick, such a background pattern or a strange gradient. Reuse that same gimmick in subtler versions with color/shape/position variations. Always strive for readability, not effect.

6. Pricing must be easily accessible. Explain in simple words if exceptions apply (student discounts etc)


> It's hard and difficult to keep it up to date

Completely off-topic and I apologize for the nitpicking: I recently learned the nuance between complex and hard [1], is there a nuance between hard and difficult?

[1]: https://paulrcook.com/blog/simple-made-easy


The landing page is indeed very good design.

As an experienced web designer I can tell you the design and implementation are straightforward, but very competently done. There are many things like the typography and UX writing that suggest this is the work of a fellow experienced designer. There’s much more here than what can be captured in a “guide” - it’s just an overall high level of design competence.


As a user without any web design experience, the site felt very nice to me... except that the demo ("schedule meetings without the email tennis") hijacked my scrollbar. That felt awful.


I wish. Page design is one of those things where you can feel like an expert when looking at someone else's page, but as soon as you attempt it yourself, you end up making a mess and filling the page with all your own personal pet peeves.

I think the best advice is probably to start as simple as possible: no more than two columns with responsiveness to one column, no more than a few colors, etc.

But also, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself comparing your own work to this site. Someone spent a lot of money on a three letter domain, and they probably spent some more on the design for it.


Better yet, pick a few shades of grey ranging from white to black and a few shades of _one_ other colour. https://fly.io/ comes to mind. Also, here is a great video on choosing colour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq8LYj6kRyE


Design is a function of your content. Start there. Write the content for your website. Edit it. Structure it in logical groups that transition well from one another (story). Once you have that, you can start thinking about visual design as a way to emphasis and give a punch to the meaning of each piece of the story. Don't let yourself get distracted by superfluous design elements you see in a lot of modern website. You might use or two of those, but you might just keep it minimal, focus on good typography and visual hierarchy, and your website will look professional if you master just those few things.

Content-first design: https://alistapart.com/blog/post/content-first-design/




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