Destination : Unimportant

Hi,

Through the years i expanded my website, along with the destinations i visited. The frontpage is located at http://vincent.kemper.nu. Once you select a destination there are several designs that i changed along the years. The last journey's i have blogged and used b2evolution to do so.

I think i want to give this site [frontpage] a more flashy 3d-look, but i do not know how yet. Any ideas or sites that i can use as an example ?

Vincent

PS : If you like the panorama's you can also directly go to http://gallery.kemper.nu.

Hi Vincent,

What a fabulous idea! I love what you've done.

The only thing I'm not keen on is the popup windows when you view a destination.

My main impression with the homepage, is that it would be lovely to see selected photos much bigger - it would draw you in more. Then perhaps you could do a rolling slideshow (is that what they're called?) of all your destinations below.

Or perhaps you could do some sort of visual diary for the homepage either. Again highlight one destination and have the others linked off from a sidebar.

Cat

--
http://web.soothed.com.au/
Web design for natural therapists

Hi Vincent,

Great idea! And great content too.

Like Cat though, I think the photos on the homepage could be better presented, and the popups are probably unnecessary.

Also, within the popups, layout varies considerably, so it's hard to easily scan through multiple destinations. Maybe some consistency here would make things a little easier?

Simon

--
ELATED : )
http://www.PageKits.com
Professional Website Templates

Hi Cat and Simon,

I do not like the popups either, but to me that is the only way to keep the homepage 'alive'. A selection then moves you to a new window. A selection or 'mouseover' of one of the pics/destinations with a bigger image would maybe be nice. Something like http://www.dreamstime.com has at the bottom ?? Any idea where to get this or should i try and grasp the context from the website ?

Changing the site with a bar on the bottom or left would create an area to put the destination-content. This would then be used instead of a popup window. Examples at http://s5.tinypic.com/28im5wg.jpg or http://www.sca.shiseido.com/spring2008s/images/dp/gallery_filmstrip.jpg. A selection at the bottom would minimize the weblog content to be viewed though.

If i stay with the popup's i was thinking of creating something like http://thumb7.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/photos/display_pic_with_logo/121945/121945,1190903092,2.jpg It would give the site a more 3d-look. I have to bear in mind though that i will keep travelling ...

Within the popups the layout varies greatly, because i build the site during several years. Maybe i can find some time to create one layout for all photo-countries and one layout for all weblog-countries. The latter is already in place, using b2evolution. Just find the time to do the redesign. I already started with 'migrating' the content of the Guatamala-Honduras trip to the weblog-layout.The photo-layout will need more resemblance [colors, typeface] with the weblog-layout.

Vincent

Hi Vincent,

It's time consuming doing any kind of redesign project (especially if your pages are static), but I think it's worth it in the end to bring everything up to date, and get a more consistent look - consistency is good for usability too.

I'd probably go for a vertical filmstrip rather than a horizontal one. Screen sizes are so big nowadays that you can go wider, and the strip will be more easily visible at a glance that way.

I prefer the gallery filmstrip or the shutterstock one - they have a more refined polished look. The gallery one I imagine would be easier to update.

I'm not convinced by the dreamstime implementation - I was thinking more that when you rollover it would replace the main image, rather than show a little popup.

Cat

--
http://web.soothed.com.au/
Web design for natural therapists

Hi Vincent,

My advice would be a to create a frontpage that provides a gateway to the galleries/blogs, focusing on the photography. Don't get too caught up in the graphic design - you don't need it. Let the content do the talking and let the design fade into the background.

Also, so long as you keep the navigation obvious, I think people are used to losing the homepage of a site when they navigate away from that homepage, so don't worry too much about that.

Maybe something like I've mocked up in the links below, with each country having a big image on the homepage, and then the blogs presented very simply with a focus on the images within? (I was seeing the COUNTRIES menu as a drop down HTML/CSS list):

http://www.okayso.com/clients/destination/1-destination-home.jpg
http://www.okayso.com/clients/destination/2-destination-blog.jpg

For the homepage, you could use the excellent SlideShow Pro perhaps:
http://slideshowpro.net/

Just a thought,

Simon



Simon

--
ELATED : )
http://www.PageKits.com
Professional Website Templates

Hmm, the SlideShow pro gallery is a nice replacement for the different version of photo galleries i have now. Already downloaded the trial version and did some tests with my oktoberfest pictures. Will get the StandAlone version and manually edit the several xml-files. First see if i can find out how to change some colors.

It is easy to get rid of the popups in the current 'gateway'-design; Just remove the target="_blank" attribute

For the weblogs i will stay with B2evolution and the current design. It is clean and readability is good. I might add lightbox to get an easier and nicer view of the pictures. And you do not get a popup if you want to see the bigger picture ... There seems to be a plugin that i should be able to use.

Thanks for the mockup Simon. Gave me an additional idea how to setup the gateway.

In the meantime i created a website for a girlfriend ; http://www.handmadebyh.nl . Now just find out how to make this work without frames :S.

Vincent

[Edited by getafix4kix on 26-Oct-09 15:41]

Hi Cat and Simon,

I decided to go for SlideShowPro to organize my pictures.

I started to get use to the software [what can i tweak and how should i do this] with another website i 'manage' :

http://dikkebertha.kemper.nu

And now start to organize my pictures of my traveled destinations ...

Thanks,

Vincent

Looks great! Good luck Vincent

Cat

--
http://web.soothed.com.au/
Web design for natural therapists

Looks really nice with the slideshow - especially full screen. Now that's what I call a big gun!

Matt

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

Good choice. I like Slideshow Pro a lot, especially in conjunction with the Director software running at the back end. I used it here:

http://www.sarlasmusic.com/photogallery/


Simon

--
ELATED : )
http://www.PageKits.com
Professional Website Templates