Established website always keen for comments!

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
User avatar
halcyon999
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:23 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Established website always keen for comments!

Post by halcyon999 »

Hi guys,

This site's been up online now for about 4 years, and we are always keen on comments from anyone, anywhere if they feel they would like to!

http://www.halcyonholidaycottages.co.uk

All the best,
Darren.
Halcyon Holiday Cottages in Hampshire

Please feel free to review the site above!
Paul Carmel
Posts: 3836
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm
Location: Palma Mallorca & Greece
Contact:

Post by Paul Carmel »

Hi,

After just a quick look, I have to say the black background does not say holiday to me..........sorry, big fan of white backgrounds.

Otherwise the properties look really cool.
Cheers
PC
User avatar
marcus
Posts: 624
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:37 am
Location: Lot-Garonne / Dordogne borders
Contact:

Post by marcus »

Afraid I agree with Paul

I have white on black for my blog and my wife is always saying it makes her feel sick and gives her a headache. Happily she doesn't know how to change it.

But if you've had the site 4 years you should jnow the answer - are you getting a good number of bookings straight from the website? I guess that's the best indication whether it works or not.

PS I would be very wary about doing link exchange with irrelevant companies through sites like linkmarket - you'll get good PR but a high chance of being thrown out of the google index.
User avatar
halcyon999
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:23 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by halcyon999 »

Paul Carmel wrote:Hi,

After just a quick look, I have to say the black background does not say holiday to me..........sorry, big fan of white backgrounds.

Otherwise the properties look really cool.
Thanks PC, and yes, a few people have said the same thing about the black background, but that's what the owner was particularly keen on from day 1, and it's worked so far, so hey! What the hell, we broke the mold!.....

Thanks for the comments,
D.
Halcyon Holiday Cottages in Hampshire

Please feel free to review the site above!
Canaryvilla
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:04 pm
Location: Fuerteventura
Contact:

Post by Canaryvilla »

If you have been running your site for 4 years and have not changed to much, you must have found it works for you.

Like others my only point is the black background, use of complimentary colours on a web site does help with people viewing. I have made these mistakes and still do, something that is pleasing to me other hate, so a lot is down to individual taste.

The pic's that you use are nice and clear which I am sure gets people interested.
User avatar
Partridge
Posts: 2701
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:31 pm
Location: Costa de la Luz
Contact:

Post by Partridge »

I have to agree re the colours, I like a far softer look and it does make it look more like an estate agents site than a holiday.
Don't waste energy on things you can't change.

Costa de la Luz apartment rental
www.ownersdirect.co.uk/spain/S5386.htm
User avatar
Sallys Chateau
Posts: 85
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:14 am
Location: carcassonne france

website

Post by Sallys Chateau »

Black background just too harsh,very difficult to read on a laptop, but nice pics, very professional looking which I guess you are after four years !
Gus
Posts: 35
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:39 am
Location: Near Mirambeau in 17
Contact:

Post by Gus »

If you were browsing in a shop for a book or a CD the ‘pick-up’ appeal of design on the cover is vital. In the same way when a potential holiday maker is browsing on the internet the first glimpse of a site is crucial to get that person to stop the hypnotic mouse clicking routine and think ‘Now this looks interesting’.

With a book or a CD the buying choice is very influenced by the reputation that the author or artist has become: ‘Ah! This is the latest Sebastian Foulkes’ or ‘I have heard about this new Bob Dylan’. So pick-up appeal is influenced by the brands that the authors and musicians have become. None of our holiday websites have this recognition factor.

So the old saw that ‘First impressions count’ is true for holiday websites.

As a graphic designer (though not one who works on websites) I believe that anything that gets in the way of a clear communication is to be avoided. To put it another way an example of an effective design is one that is invisible to the viewer as that person absorbs the communication without being aware of it.

Websites should have a memorable visual impact and must instantly make the person browsing stop and read.

We all want our websites to stand out from the crowd and in our efforts to be striking it is easy to fall into the trap of being a tad strange. This is a strong temptation for people teaching themselves a new technology.

Now a counter argument to all the above is the belief ‘What I have on my site is so amazingly good that people will buy it and I have no need for arty-farty subtleties’. With an amazingly good product this might well be true but people would certainly buy more if the communication was better. Because something works does not mean that it could not work better.

So I have written over 300 words to say:

‘Darren, your website looks a mess. It might work but it could work far better for you - start by not using a distracting background’. The owner might like it but would he/she not prefer the opportunity for increasing the bookings?

(OK, I know I am riding for a fall when I invite you all to comment on my own site which I will when it has been revised).
User avatar
Mountain Goat
Posts: 6070
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:31 pm
Location: Leysin, Alpes Vaudoises, Switzerland
Contact:

Post by Mountain Goat »

Darren, hi

Why not duplicate your home page somewhere else on your website (i.e. save it as something else rather than index.html or whatever), perhaps 3 or 4 times.

Then just flick the background to various other colours i.e. cream, off-white etc.

And then see what you (and your punter?) think about it, and maybe us as well.

The change could be dramatic.

MG
User avatar
halcyon999
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:23 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Cyberskin

Post by halcyon999 »

Ouch Gus!

Good job I've got extra thick cyber skin!

Thanks for the comments - I think the overwhelming consensus is that the black is not good.

If you have any suggestions on 'un-messing' the site I'd be glad to hear them,

Many Thanks,
D
Halcyon Holiday Cottages in Hampshire

Please feel free to review the site above!
Gus
Posts: 35
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:39 am
Location: Near Mirambeau in 17
Contact:

Post by Gus »

Halcyon 999 - you get your chance next week when I will ask you and all at LMH to review my revised site. Still a work-in-progress at the moment.

How to un-mess? well the first thing is to look at all the sites that have multiple properties like yours then work-out which ones look the least messy and analyse how they did it.
e-richard
Posts: 5008
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:33 am
Location: Algarve, Portugal
Contact:

Post by e-richard »

Darren,

While I agree that your site is a "bit of a mess", its not as difficult as you may think to sort it out. Here's a couple of ideas/hints:

First, look at the page in plain black on white. A simple way to do that is use your Broswer Print or just Print Preview. Just to get an overview.

From that look, I noticed that your page just has lots of disjointed "thingies" on the page (e.g. looking down the left, you have a sort of navigation menu graphic mixed with other links and that email type in box randomly slotted in between - why ?). Think, do people really want to make this their home page ? How many people want to save the page on their disk ? All these "thingies" add to the clutter, and I wonder what the benefit is ?

The next thing I noticed is that each property has its own "style" of presentation with little consistency (important word that). Some have centralised text, some left, some right. I can see the design goal you strove for, but it doesn't work too well for me. Consistency helps a lot (so does repetition it seems). If possible, make all the thumbnails of the properties identical in size too.

Note the text under each picture - again lack of consistent presentation (Name, Sleeps X, stars, availability : the font color is inconsistent, the order of these elements, line breaks and content is inconsistent). Make them all the same, try not to use so many different colours and make all the text left ranged (or even blocked), and suddenly it all becomes neater on the eye.

Note, I haven't commented on the black background. Its my suspicion that all my above comments are more important, and with these little changes, your black background can be made to work quite effectively.

I hope this isn't too negative. I've tried to give some constructive ideas, but they are not all necessarily the best ideas - just things to look into.

Good luck
User avatar
halcyon999
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:23 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by halcyon999 »

Hi E-Richard,
Many thanks for your comments - they are indeed constructive. I will endeavour to address these as soon as I can, as I can see they will tidy things up a lot.

To be honest, I think the site needs a complete overhaul, but the owner probably wouldn't want me to do that due to cost. The site has grown from a site with two cottages on it, a booking page and so on and not a lot else. And believe me it looked neater then! (see here for the Wayback machine's cached copy from Feb 2003)

Now what we have is a site with masses of information on it which has just sort of 'grown' by itself, so a little careful tidying up will hopefully help to achieve the consistency we need - improving functionality whilst preserving search engine positions is hopefully what we'll get!

Thanks again,
Darren
Halcyon Holiday Cottages in Hampshire

Please feel free to review the site above!
A-two
Posts: 2091
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:05 am
Location: USA

Post by A-two »

e-richard wrote:Note, I haven't commented on the black background. Its my suspicion that all my above comments are more important, and with these little changes, your black background can be made to work quite effectively.
I agree with this in principle, although personally, whilst making the above changes, I would also show the owner a couple of sample pages in a dark slate grey, also one in a mid grey - dark enough to read white text, light enough to read black text. This would be close enough in style to what is there now to still feel like the same site, but would bring it into 2006. I don't object to the black, but it feels a little outdated to me and very dominant on the home page where the photos are small.

However, with an established customer base, I would think twice about making a very dramatic change, or people might think the business has changed hands and that's not good. So even if the objective is to go to white or light colored background eventually, I would still consider transitioning through a grey stage.

Just my 2 cents.
Post Reply