Apartment in Austria - feedback please

[Kersh]

Hi all, first post so I though I may get down to the nitty gritty and ask you all to take a look at my site and comment.

http://www.apartment-graukogel.com

I'm new to web design and just learnt as I went along when creating the site. I'm now looking to improve my website and I have a few comments/criticisms of my own. I'll keep them to myself for now and see what you guys come up with.

While waiting to be let loose on the forum, i've read the notes on this site and I have a few changes I need to make in line with the advice.

Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated. No going easy on me cos i'm new!!

Cheers

[enid]

I'm supposed to be mopping the kitchen floor so I haven't time to have a thorough look at the moment - but first glance - it is very hard for me to read - the blue with white text just hurts my eyes. I'll try again later.

[Hells Bells]

Hi kersh, I agree with Enid, although it does say 'snow, blue sky, sunshine' it hurt my eyes too. Perhaps stick to the white text for the headings, and use Black for the main text? Boring but effective.
And a warm welcome to LMH!!!

[Kersh]

Thanks for the responses. It has to be said, I do agree with the colour scheme being a little hard to see. That said, it looks pretty naf with black text.

One of the things I want to do it change the colour scheme. I'm thinking about blue around the edge and white in the centre with black text. Sounds tricky to me.

Thanks for the welcome to the forum Helen.

Kersh

[enid]

I've had another look and I like the site very much. The content is very informative and clear - I like the acticities page as I'm not a skier but could se lots of things for me to do. I also liked the travel page and the feednacxk page - 2 usual items wellpresented. Good photos helped me get a realm feel of the place.

A few negatives - still don't like the colour scheme I would always prefer black text on white and perhpas a different clearer font. The maps were hard to read even enlarged.

Hope that helps

[Jimbo]

Hi Kersh

Mouthwatering snow and scenery pix but your gite interior and exterior shots weren't in the same ballpark. Your feedback suggests spacious accomodation but the pictures work against this. Pictures and text should compliment not contradict each other.

Looks a lovely place, good luck with your venture.

Jim

[linda147]

I agree about the text - also I think there is far too much text on the home page. I think you are better off with less text in a larger font that people will read and make them want to go further into your site. Too much text can be a turn off.
I would also have more pictures of the interior - I had to go back to the home page and read through all the text to find out how many bedrooms and other accommodation you have - this ought to be highlighted in the first few lines of a webpage as this is the main thing people are interested in - is the accommodation big enough? They will then look further at the accommodation, area etc. Good quality pictures capture peoples interest.
Hope this is helpful.

[Kersh]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm planning a real overhaul of the site soon so I will try and come up with a colour scheme that gets rid of the white text on a blue background.

I agree entirely that the pics of the property are not that good. The house is nestled in trees which is great but it makes it tricky to photograph the place. I'm heading out there in Feb with a friend of mine who's a really great photographer so i'm hoping to crack the problem of the exterior and interior pictures.

When I wrote the site, I really wanted to tempt people to Bad Gastein from the homepage by writing some mouthwatering text. I now realise my mistake as visitors actually have to read it. I'll take your advice Linda147 and slim the text down.

What are people's general opinion of flash slideshows and does anyone have any advice on how to create them? I'd like to take some of the photos and put them in a slideshow on the frontpage. At the moment there isn't one good picture of the apartment on there which is a bit of a disaster really.

Any more comments?

Thanks
Kersh

[linda147]

if you have a look at my website from the link in my profile I have a flash slide show linked from the home page called "Cadiz virtual tour". I created that in a piece of software called Amara slide show builder. I downloaded this from the internet for about $20. See what you think - it was very easy to do.

[Kersh]

Linda147, thanks for the tip.

The slideshow on your site is great, it's just the sort of thing i'm after. I'm surprised you didn't put it on your homepage? I think that's what i'll do on my website.

Kersh

[Garri]

Kersh, great first attempt at web design by the way.

Here's a site I came across today which you could draw some inspiration from:

http://www.alpsinstyle.com

I particularly like the way the header image changes page by page - it's an effective way to show off your property and/or area by incorporating images into your site's branding. The images are in a Flash movie, which I'll forgive as I usually dislike sites that use Flash.

[maisoui1]

Great activities page.
I like how you divided it by seasons. I (please don't chase me from the board here) hate snow and cold weather .... but the winter time pictures are very beautiful. I actally imagined myself there ... for a split second ... then I thought "he doesn't have a fireplace". When I read the text more carefully I realized that you do! You need a picture of a fire in the fireplace for entice people like me!