The Index: Issue #4

It’s all about product landing pages this week. Rather than the typical formula we’ve got tired of and ridiculed over the years — these landing pages really pack a punch.

Arc

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The Arc browser homepage

I’m all-in on Arc as my main browser these days — it’s fantastic. The product landing page is equally fantastic too.

The landing page doesn’t overload you with content and gets the message across — that it is the browser of the future — really concisely. The attention to detail with texture, imagery and scroll-based interaction (especially the “space” part) is great.

Silv Peanut Butter

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The Silv Peanut Butter homepage

There’s a couple of bits I’m not a fan of here. Scroll-jacking (when the website hijacks natural scroll) is totally unnecessary and frankly, problematic in probably 99.9% of contexts. This site firmly sits in the 99.9%, I’m afraid. The performance of this site appears to be pretty low too, which for us, is worrying, because it’s almost certainly affecting conversion. I can only image how it performs on a mid-range or low-powered device.

But, aside from that, it’s a lovely site. The product imagery is superb — as are the headlines. You simply cannot beat well-written headlines that tell you everything. It’s a copywriting art and the producers of this site have got it down to a T.

MANA yerba maté

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The MANA yerba maté homepage

Our designer, Leanne, started the week by sharing this one in our Slack and by gosh, from a visual perspective, it’s a beauty. There’s a concerning lack of selectable text though, which is an accessibility red flag.

Looking back at the Silv Peanut Butter site and it’s scroll-jacking: I’d say this site does it better. I honestly think if they got rid of the effect on this site — which seems to smooth the scrolling, rather than fully hijack it — it would be much better. Regardless, I love how creative and frankly, wild, the site is.

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Until the next issue, take it easy 👋
Andy