How do developers create an "under construction" webpage? For most clients, even something simple like an "under construction" text is more than enough—perhaps a basic image with an illustration and caption. But what if you've got an important client whom you want to impress from the outset? You know the old saying: "First impressions matter". A simple text or image would be a bit 'meh' in that case. However, you shouldn't spend too much time on it either. How can you create a custom "website under construction" page in a few clicks?
Unstruction is an MIT-licensed, open-source web template and theme made by us, designed to set up a simple and effective "website under construction" page. Now, you can probably guess how the name came about. If you follow us on social media, you may have already read about this. Unstruction was originally announced through our Instagram back in 2024, which is why I've used that as the post date. You don't need to learn Jekyll to use this Jekyll theme. In fact, you don’t even need to know HTML or CSS—anyone can use it as long as they can read! If you're familiar with Jekyll, you can further customise it for "Website Under Maintenance" scenarios too. We'll release this as an update in the near future to make life easier. Detailed instructions on how to install and set up the theme are available on the GitHub repository.
The theme provides several options for customising the webpage. You can display the client's important contact details, including their location on a map. One feature you shouldn't overlook is the countdown timer, which can be set to the planned launch date.
Unstruction is built using Shoelace web components, making the design minimal and visually pleasing while ensuring the code remains clean. We’ve leveraged Shoelace’s colour tokens, which allow instant modifications to match your client’s brand colours to some extent. Feel free to check out the demo and use it in your projects.