which looks better?

I've got two splash page concepts that ive been trying out...which do you like the best?

http://www.younghistorians.com
or
http://www.younghistorians.com/blah.html

Thanks!

 

#2 is too much yellow.

 

#1 is too much gray.

 

Why do you want a splash page at all. This is not usually considered good design for the following reasons.

1. It annoys some viewers -- I personally feel insulted if I land on one --because there is one more click they have to make to get at the meat of the site.

2. They are hard to do search engine optimization for because there is no content.

In all seriousness except for the badly advised people who insist on Flash Splash pages which are almost universally reviled, nobody has done splash pages for the last 4 or 5 years. Just can the idea and do a home page with some information on it.

 

I'm doing the splash page until im done fundraising for the actual site.

 

yes, but how does that compare to #2?

 

as long as it's just temporary then there's no reason why you shouldn't use one- in the long term though you should definitely try to move away from them.

I like the first quite a bit more. the form at the bottom seems oddly out of place though- just the format of it. otherwise very nice.

 

I am not a fan of splash pages. That aside, the gray makes both of the pages look drab and uninviting. Sorry, you asked for opinions.

 

Now, thats an idea! I had not thought about that before...but I think that would look the best.

I'll change it soon-thanks again!

 

But why should that stop you from putting some content on the page. You're asking people to subscribe to a newsletter and you don't tell them anything about it.

If you are fund raising, say so, and state what your final goal is. Put contact info on the page or even a PayPal "Donate" button, someone might want to send you money.

If you don't do some or all of these things what good is the page doing? You might as well wait for your fund raising before putting anything up, because what your proposing is absolutely useless.

 

I think im going to have to re-think this whole splash page idea.

The blah.html (the 2nd page) is out-im not going to use that.

My main intent was to use the page as a placeholder for the domain until the site is complete. I wanted it to convey a small amount of what's coming, but other than that, I wanted to leave it slightly as a mystery.

I have a contact form on there for anyone that feels too confused or wants more information, a vague page stating some of the site's needs, and a PDf file with alittle more information. The reason ive left it like that is because about 75% of the users that visit that page will already understand what the site is going to be, why that page is there, etc. The other 25% can deal with it.

To sum it up, I decided to use a splash page because the page's main audience will already know something about, and don't need the page to give them any more information.


Thanks!

 

I've had other people tell me that kind of thing. I think it is the dumbest answer in the world. The Internet is a huge world wide communication device. If all the people you are interested in already know everything they need to know, what the hell are you doing on the Internet.

If you want to keep it a deep dark secret, don't put up a web site! If are willing to insult anyone who happens to find the page but isn't in your inner circle then keep right on.

You have personally insulted me by having the audacity to ask me to review your site and then publicly stating that if I don't know what it's about I "can deal with it". Why don't you just say I can go to hell. That's what you really mean.

 

I was asking for a review of the design, not the content.

You make it sound like I put a big bold message on there: "HEY IDIOTS, TRY TO FIGURE THIS SITE OUT!"

Yeah, ok, whatever you say. You choose to feel that way.

 

younghistorians,

There is probably a more delicate way to put this but, many of us find websites we know nothing about prior to visiting a link or search result. As Compar has stated, those of us who would know nothing about the site beforehand would be rather put out upon arrival. The look/design of the page is more than a graphic and placing links, content, etc. on the page does more than just aesthetics, it brings the visitor in.

Your request to review the 2 options made me feel that you wanted opinions. Hopefully, each of those posted here are "constructive criticism" and are taken as such. The web is more than a small collection of friends and relatives and should probably be recognized in that context when creating the splash page or any other page of the site. IMHO

 

I agree with VS on that one - move the links up on #2.

I don't know if I care too much for either, partly to do with what compar already stated.

 

You have asked, which look better.
#2

 

Note to everyone: I no longer need any more responses.

Also, Zez, how can you say #2 is better looking when that fire was deleted a couple weeks ago? It no longer exists, so im not sure how you could say that.