2008年10月16日星期四

Web Design2 - Pujangga Homestay

since Joanne said, the photo frame is a bit noisy, so i change it into wooden frame, which still remain the "photo feeling" but less noisy. basically, everything will be the same, so, i just upload some pages that i have changed.

main page

about us


guest book

our services
reservation


i think, i need to think deeply why i choose kitchen for reservation page and why the specific room for certain page. i have to come out the rational and reason for everything, i guess. and uh...the size of the wooden frame and the photo should be consistent. the white background of the logo have to be removed, and perhaps change the color of the stupid simple logo. ( what a nice simple logo, i like it soooooo much. :-D --i think i better redesign a logo.)

Joanne and Yik Jian suggested that the images button can come with the yellow grow before roll over. then when cursor roll over, the yellow grow gone and the word and arrow come out.
for the navigation, can put something to replace the navigation before roll over. mean, when roll over to the "something", the navigation come down, or squish or grow or whatever that can replace the "something".

erm...perhaps can reduce the size of all the images, leave a little bit margin for the photo inside the frame. but if want to make the images overlap the frame, like what "someone" told me, then make the frame smaller and make everything more bigger than the frame, make it obviously bigger and out of frame.

and for the body copy, "someone" said, can remove the white background, make the text itself look like a box. hmm... this might look nicer, but isn't it a BIT hard to read? as a user also, i found it a BIT(ya, its really a BIT, i mean it.) hard to read body text that look like box. like this post. maybe its time to check my eyes again. erm... out of the topic again. anyway, i will consider what "someone" told me to change. :P
thanks to Joanne, Yik Jian and....uh, "someone" for the comment.

2008年10月14日星期二

Wed Design 2 - Pujangga Homestay Interface

main page

about


guest book

guest book - photo gallery

logo

2008年10月3日星期五

Web Design 2 - Project - Creative Brief 2

Site Strategy:
The web site redesign will be added some direct communication methods to interact with users. There will be a simple flash animation that shows photo of facilities and rooms in Pujangga Homestay, this can attract more user in the first page. Besides this, a photo gallery to show pictures of how happy was the people when they stayed in Pujangga Homestay; FAQ, which is question section where allow user to ask more about the hostel; Feedback section, Guest book that allow user or customer of hostel chat and comment will be added also. For the Useful info page, the exist web site already have Local Area, Visitor Guide and Link of the travel services, these will be remained while adding a new page, which is Services Phone Number. This will make the web site become more helpful and user friendly, to impress the user that Pujangga Homestay is open-armed to everyone and willing to help anyone. In order to make the web site look more youth, since the first target audience is backpackers and young adult as second, they are people who like thing that is youth and energetic, simple animation will be added in and every picture that used in the web site will exist with a white border. With this, pictures will look a bit cute and young.

For the color mood, warm series of color, such as red, pink, orange, yellow will be widely use in the web site. Some cold color, which are light blue, purple, magenta and a little bit of green will be use to neutralize the color mood, so that the web site will not look too warm and eye attack. Besides these colors, a neutral color is needed to make the web site’s color mood balance. White color will be the best choice instead of the original color in the current web site, which is grey. White give people a clean, pure, new and young feeling. Photo of the landmarks that surround Pujangga Homestay and objects that can show the identity of Malaysia will be used in the web site, to emphasize the main unique selling point of Pujangga Homestay, which is the location of the hostel in centre of Kuala Lumpur.

Competitive Positioning:
Pujangga Homestay has many competitors in the service industry, mostly small house with low price, promotion package with breakfast, high hygiene and comfortable environment. Highlighting the location and the youth & simple feeling of the hostel will separate Pujangga Homestay from its competition.


Single-Minded Message:
Youthful & simple interactive



Flow Chart:


2008年9月25日星期四

Moodboard

2008年9月24日星期三

Web Design 2 - Project - Creative Brief

Pujangga Homestay Web Site Redesign

Creative Brief <25-9-2008> <1.0>

 

Current Web site address:

www.pujangga-homestay.com

 

Project Summary:

Pujangga Homestay is a low cost hostel in the city center of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pujangga Homestay provides a high standard of hospitality and cleanliness at an affordable price. To attract more customers from the global market, Pujangga Homestay is seeking a redefined online presence and identity. Firstly, the project scope is to recreate the existing web site which is outdated and not attractive enough, so that it will standardize and comparable with competitors’ web sites, more user friendly and last, easy to update. Long term, the Pujangga Homestay site will be a good tool for customers to get more updated information and to communicate with them.

 

Unique Selling Point:

1.   Low budget Malaysian home style hostel

2.   Malaysia local culture surrounding

 

Client’s Website Analysis:

Negative points:

The existing web site is using cool color mood, grey color as background, blue color title and black color text. It gives the users a dirty and upset feeling. This creates a big contrast with the hostel’s building design. Pujangga homestay has an old Malaysia building external design, using soft yellow and brown as the main paint, multiple colors for interior design that create a warm and colorful feel. The layout of the web site is not consistent and the footer’s position is not fixed. The text of the navigation is too big and the font is not suitable. Front page is unnecessary. It just show a picture of KLCC and the hostel‘s address.


The size of the pictures that use in the web site is not consistent and the quality is pretty bad.


There are some unnecessary images in the site. 


No hierarchy for the layout, everything just compress in a page.

Positive point:

The site is trying to give much information about the area around the hostel to the customer. Besides that, there is also a simple tour guide that contains information about Malaysia and the places that are interesting in Kuala Lumpur.

There is a map that shows the hostel’s location and the nearby area. Under the location and map page, there is some information about the ways to Pujangga Homestay by taking public transport. These are very useful information for customers that not familiar with Kuala Lumpur. 

Web site objective:

The objective is to let users know that Pujangga Homestay is an affordable, friendly and comfortable hostel.


Target Audience:

Pujangga Homestay’s first target audience is people who want a low budget place to stay, for examples, backpackers. These people want to cut down the cost for accommodation, so that they can save money to spend on others purpose such as shopping, try local food etc. Second target audience is young adults that want to experience the local surrounding when stay at a hostel instead of expensive, comfortable hotels.


Perception/Tone/Guidelines:

1.     Warm color mood.

2.     Simple.

3.     Youth feeling, with some local style comic as decoration.

4.     Information should have a fresh and conversational tone

5.     Easy to navigate and find information

 

 

Competitors Analysis

1.   Anjung KL Guesthouse

-      Few different language version

-      A lot of information

-      Lack of layout hierarchy

-      Color too strong

2.   D’ Oriental Inn

-      Nice flash header

-      One page website

-      Layout quite ok

-      Title can be more interesting

3.   Green Hut Lodge

-      Too colorful, too bright

-      News flash is unnecessary, a bit annoying

-      Put too much information in same page

4.   Hotel China Town Inn

-      Lack of layout hierarchy

-      Consistent content structure

-      There is guest book, gallery and useful link

-      More expensive than Pujangga Homestay

5.   Pondok Lodge

-      Too many text

-      Title not clear, font not suitable

-      Consistent structure

-      Tell a friend and MY state

6.   Red Palm

-      Lack of layout hierarchy

-      Too many text on header

-      Quite cute logo

-      Clear description

-      Guest book, reviews, gallery and services phone number.

-      Soft color mood

7.   Serai Inn

-      Repeated navigation

-      Distorted photo

-      Lack of hierarchy

-      Color a bit strong, not comfortable

-      Text blend into background

8.   The Haven Guesthouse

-      Personally like this site and hostel

-      Nice photo

-      Color mood ok, harmony

-      Clear description

-      Multi level menu / structure



9.   Trekker Lodge

-      Lack of hierarchy

-      Too colorful(text)

-      Consistent structure

-      Cute flash header

-      Nice background

-      This hostel is cheaper than Pujangga Homestay, they got few promotion packages

-      Guest book and gallery

10.  Westover Lodge

-      Lack of photo

-      Nice color

-      Different color = different page

-      No map

-      Lack of facilities