Coming Soon Website Design

[diamondpacific]

Over the next few months we're launching a suite of sites that offer inter-related marketing and web services (i.e., web design, copywriting, printing, graphic design, hosting, domain sales) and we needed a "coming soon" page that was dramatic and effective for the sites that aren't yet live.

Here's our site:

http://www.sitedesignfactory.com

Please note that the forms do NOT work YET. They're being put together in CoffeeCup Web Form Builder for integration with MailChimp. Both forms should be online by tonight; which is okay, because we're not "announcing" the site anyway right away, and the site's just in "testing" mode.

Bear in mind that I saw a "Coming Soon" design that I liked some time ago (no longer being used), and this layout is somewhat based on it, but that's where the resemblance ends. That said, I'd love your opinions. I"m not new to website design, but I am relatively new to Xara WD (just upgrade from MX to 9).

Please let me know what you think. Any suggestions you might have are gratefully received!

RDS
Diamond Pacific Media Group

[gwpriester]

Not sure what you are using on your site but McAfee blocked the page with a big red X and Whoa are you sure you want to go there?

[angelize]

Very nice design. The robot looks familiar to me I'm pretty sure I've seen him or one very similar somewhere before.

[diamondpacific]

Not sure what you are using on your site but McAfee blocked the page with a big red X and Whoa are you sure you want to go there?

Nothing, just Xara Website Designer 9. It's a simple site.

That's why I don't use those aspects of website security software; they block sites that are not, in fact, "bad" sites...for reasons only they seem to know. McAfree is an especially egregious and known for this. Same thing for pretty much all of the anti-virus packages actually, including Avast (which we use). Avast is great...up to a point. We tend to shut off those extra services, for all of the implied (and known) reasons.

Here's what you get when you Google "McAfee site advisor sucks".

https://www.google.com/search?q=mcaf...ient=firefox-a

You'll see that other "site advisor" components manage to work their way into the search, too. Because, well, they all basically do suck.

All that aside, our site (and our server) is fine. There's nothing on it but Xara. Period. Thanks for making me aware of it, Gary. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do about it though.

[angelize]

ESET smart security didn't flag the site but now I know where I've seen the robot before! ESET uses that same robot on their site and PR materials.

[diamondpacific]

Thanks, I appreciate it. Yes, the robot is available as part of a graphics package. There are a series of him standing, being thoughtful, etc. He just seemed like the least threatening and/or creepy of the various robots we could find, so I went with him.

[diamondpacific]

UPDATE: Until we can confirm that we purchased something we can use without conflicting with the other company, I'm pulling the temporary design.

Thanks for your help! We'll update the design as soon as we know more.

RDS
Diamond Pacific Media Group

[angelize]

They've also used the standing robot as well for previous versions of their software, that's what caught my attention. Here is a results page for a Tin Eye reverse image search on the image http://www.tineye.com/search/ef80314...ore&order=desc

[diamondpacific]

Okay, folks...

We've updated the design and gotten rid of that particular robot. The fact that it's a commercially-available image doesn't matter much against the fact that another company is using it--visibly.

So, to that end we've redesigned the site using another purchased robot. Oddly, we actually like this design better. Once again, we'd love everyone's input.

http://sitedesignfactory.com

As always, your comments are gratefully received!

[gwpriester]

I'm very cautious when McAfee gives me a warning like this. The last time it happened and I said, nah, go for it, I got some AdWords like utility that underlined words in the text which made me fear I had infected one of my client's sites.