[laurencei]

"I have noticed that as I build better landing pages for my MVPs I get judged more harshly"

Can I ask - why do you think you are building a "better" landing page? If you are getting judged more harshly, doesnt that mean your pages are not actually "better"? Maybe as you are building more pages, your subjective opinion of your own designs has changed....

I've seen it a few times on MVPs launched here. Some new YC company and their flashy homepage, but when I browse the homepage I have no idea what the company actually does. The pages are clean, but the actual idea is vague...

[etewiah]

I should have phrased it better. By "better" landing pages I meant more polished with well thought out fonts, colors, text etc.

[krono]

People don't want a drill, they want a hole in their wall.

To me, "better" means more effective i.e. higher conversion rate, wider reach, etc.

[mrcartmeneses]

I have two drills: A cordless Makita that be do almost anything including being used as a driver and will go all day long without charge; and a corded Bosch that can go through concrete and stone like butter. I do use them to put holes in my wall. But I value them for being fucking awesome drills too

[marcinzm]

Design does not live in a vacuum. The landing page of a children's game is going to be different than that of a B2B SaaS product. The point of a good design is to convey the brand and a message around the brand rather than to just "look good." If you're an MVP then part of the message is likely that you're an MVP.

[rapnie]

Maybe just adding some lines of clarification on the state of your MVP is enough to bring back expectations to a more appropriate level ("Currently we have [this], for [these reasons]. [Here's] what is on the roadmap").

[zupa-hu]

Problem is, people don’t read before forming a first impression.

[Majings]

I think the implication is that the product/application which the landing page is promoting is being judged more harshly, rather than the landing page itself.

[IMSAI8080]

But it may be the "better" landing page is less clear, which makes it more frustrating to understand the product, which has a side effect of causing a negative opinion of it. So in this case the landing page is not better because it's failing in it's core job of communicating the product.

It's common design these days to have landing pages that are a giant photo with huge text where you have to scroll for for a mile to be rewarded with nothing but platitudes and hyperbole, one sentence at a time. The simpler page which actually explains the product functionality and the pricing in clear language on one page would be better from the user's perspective.