Waitlist Page Template

Use this template when the artifact is a pre-launch / private-beta / early-access waitlist for a product that wants to feel measured and exclusive — not a growth-hack countdown page.

Use When

• The product is not yet shipping — primary CTA is "join the waitlist", not "sign up free".
• Audience is niche / creative / pro — visual creators, AI tinkerers, indie founders, design-tool users.
• The vibe should be calm, curated, "few slots" — not "10,000 people are on the list, hurry".
• The page can carry one email form well, plus a slim feature triplet, and ends there.

Avoid When

• The product is shipping and ready for trial — use saas-landing/ (full marketing) or pricing-page/.
• The brand is loud, neon, consumer-mass-market — wrong mood.
• The page needs to do conversion-optimization with multiple CTAs, A/B variants, urgency timers — this template's hushed tone is the opposite of that.
• The audience is enterprise — use a contact-sales pattern, not a public waitlist.

Required Reading

Read this SKILL.md first. Do not read 层云-waitlist.html by default.

Read 层云-waitlist.html only when you need: the floating-card drift loop (8 cards, 14–19s with staggered entrance), the fade-up cascade timing, the live-counter bump-on-submit animation, the glass-nav backdrop blur, or the form success / error states. Extract patterns; do not copy the placeholder brand voice, the 820+ counter starting value, or class names wholesale.

Design Strategy

A waitlist page does one job. Decide the singular hook before adding anything:

• "Your creative system. Finally arrived." (product-thesis hook)
• "Built for [audience], not everyone." (exclusion hook)
• "We're opening 100 seats this month." (scarcity hook — use sparingly)

Then keep the spine short:

1. Fixed nav (logo + secondary link + small CTA)
2. Hero teaser with drifting visual cards
3. One-line headline + one-line subline
4. Email form with live joiner count
5. 3-feature article triptych (optional)
6. Mid-page CTA echo
7. Minimal footer

Resist adding pricing, testimonials, FAQ — those belong on the post-launch landing.

Layout Bias

Prefer:

• deep charcoal background with subtle radial vignette
• one accent color (the template uses success-green) for the joiner pill and form success
• thin weights for body, medium-bold for headline, no display-poster type
• soft floating animations (14–19s loops) — never bouncy, never fast
• form succeeds in place — no redirect to a generic "thanks" page
• live counter that bumps up by one on submit

Avoid:

• countdown timers, urgency banners, scarcity badges
• testimonials from people who haven't used the product
• 3D plastic mockup hero images
• 黑金 / neon-cyber palettes
• emoji in the counter or features

Platform / Size

Desktop and mobile both first-class — waitlists get shared on Twitter / 微信 and most clicks are mobile. Keep the hero readable at 360px width; the floating cards should reduce to 4 (not 8) on mobile.