Public homepage revamp

# Public homepage revamp

Redesign the logged-out landing page so a first-time visitor — a teacher, department head, or district decision-maker who has never seen Yawp — quickly understands what it is, who it's for, and why to bring it to their classroom or school.

## Problem

Today the marketing surface is an afterthought. Almost all engineering effort has gone into the in-app teacher and student experience; the public-facing entry point hasn't kept pace. As we move from invitational pilots (UA, Washington, Birmingham City) toward broader district outreach, the homepage is increasingly the first thing a prospect sees, often before any sales conversation. If it doesn't make the case in 30 seconds, we lose the lead before we know it existed.

This is felt by:

- **Teachers and department heads** evaluating tools on their own. They land cold, scan, and bounce if there's no obvious "this is for me."
- **District/admin buyers** doing due diligence after a referral. They need to see legitimacy, scale, and what differentiates Yawp from the AI-writing tools they're already wary of.
- **Bryant and Kevin** in sales conversations, who currently have no good URL to send that pre-sells the product.

Today's workaround: every prospect gets a 1:1 demo or call. That doesn't scale.

## Goals

- A first-time visitor understands within ~10 seconds: what Yawp is, who it's for, and the one thing that makes it different.
- A teacher-prospect can self-serve enough belief in the product to either start a trial or request a conversation, without needing a demo first.
- A district-prospect sees enough credibility signals (pilot schools, scale, outcomes) to take a follow-up meeting.
- The page reflects the brand stance: a calm, focused writing tool — not an "AI writing assistant." See hard rules.
- Mobile-responsive. A non-trivial share of first visits will be from phones (admin clicking a Slack/email link).

## Non-goals

- Not a full marketing site rebuild — this is the homepage only. Deeper pages (pricing, about, case studies) are downstream.
- Not a logged-in product change. The in-app experience is out of scope.
- Not a rebrand. Visual identity, logo, and color system stay as-is unless the audit surfaces something blocking.
- Not lead-capture infrastructure (CRM wiring, email automation). If a CTA needs a form, it can drop into whatever exists today.

## Current-state audit

**To be filled in.** Need a walkthrough of the live logged-out homepage before we can usefully scope the revamp. Capture:

- URL of the current landing page (production).
- Screenshots or screen-recording of the page on desktop and mobile.
- Above-the-fold content: headline, subhead, primary CTA, hero visual.
- Below-the-fold sections in order, with the rough purpose of each.
- What CTAs exist and where they lead (signup, contact, demo request, etc.).
- Anything that looks stale, confusing, off-brand, or that violates the "no AI branding" rule.
- Anything that's working — strong proof points, good social proof, etc. — that we should preserve.

Once captured, list the top 3–5 problems with the current page that the revamp should fix. Those become the spine of the goals above.

## Target audiences (priority order)

1. **Teachers** — individual instructors evaluating Yawp for their own classroom. Highest volume, lowest commit threshold.
2. **Department heads / curriculum leads** — evaluating for a team or grade level. Mid commit threshold; want to see it works at scale.
3. **District admins / school leadership** — evaluating for a building or district. Lowest volume, highest commit threshold; want credibility and outcomes.

The page has to serve all three without becoming a wall of text. Likely shape: a clear hero for teachers, with a "for schools and districts" path further down.

## Key messages to land

Draft list — refine after the audit.

- Yawp is a writing platform for high school and college, not a generic AI tool.
- Students write *more* and write *better*; teachers grade *faster* with *more insight*.
- The product is calm and focused — it doesn't pop sparkles or interrupt the writing process.
- Real classrooms, real scale: pilot schools and student counts as proof.
- Teacher-built rubrics, real feedback, real revision — not autograding.

## UX sketch

To be drafted after the audit. Likely shape:

```
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nav: Yawp     Product   For schools   Pricing    Sign in [CTA]|
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| HERO                                                         |
|   Headline (one line, plain English, no jargon)              |
|   Subhead (one sentence, who it's for + what it does)        |
|   Primary CTA (start free / book a demo)                     |
|   Hero visual (real product screenshot, not an illustration) |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| 3-up: what students do / what teachers do / what schools see |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Proof: pilot schools, student counts, teacher quote          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| For schools & districts (longer pitch, secondary CTA)        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| FAQ + footer                                                 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
```

## Open questions

- [ ] Where does the current homepage live in `yawp-2.0`? Is it a route in the main app, or a separate marketing build?
- [ ] Who owns copy — Kevin, Bryant, or do we want outside help?
- [ ] What's the primary CTA — self-serve trial, demo request, or both side-by-side?
- [ ] Do we have permission to name pilot schools (UA, Washington, Birmingham City) on a public page, or do we need to anonymize?
- [ ] Any existing analytics on the current page (bounce rate, time on page, CTA click-through)?
- [ ] Are there pricing decisions that need to land before this ships, or can the page punt to "contact us"?

## Domain notes

Minimal domain interaction — this is a logged-out page. The only domain touch points are likely the sign-in / sign-up flow and any teacher/student account creation surfaces it links to. No Document, Submission, or Assignment entities involved directly.

## Hard-rule check

- **No AI branding.** The revamp must respect this. No "AI-powered," no sparkle icons, no Copilot framing. The platform's calm-tool stance is the differentiator, not a thing to hide.
- **Mobile-responsive.** Required; many first visits will be from phones.

## Engineering handoff checklist

- [ ] Current-state audit captured
- [ ] Domain context covered (likely minimal)
- [ ] File paths in `yawp-2.0` listed
- [ ] Data model implications spelled out (likely none)
- [ ] UX sketch in prose, with copy direction
- [ ] Edge cases enumerated (unauthenticated states, mobile, slow connections)
- [ ] Test plan written
- [ ] Rollout plan decided