THE SITUATION: A local startup needed a Website for their vacation cabin rental business. With minimal advertising budget, they needed their online presence to be their main source of marketing as well.
THE GOAL: Design a website that would do well with search engine ranking and appeal to users who might book online but not necessarily be Web savvy.
THE SOLUTION: I initially designed the site from a functional perspective but found users were not drawn into the experience. I redesigned the site focusing on emotional appeal and it was a huge success with user feedback.
The wireframe below was an initial cut at the functional design. The focus was to identify the main navigation and core parts of the home page.
The mockup below was the initial cut at the functional design. The layout was optimized for a 1280px width (the most popular at the time) and had the entire page above the fold.
User research had shown that more than 75% of vacation reservations are done by women and the feedback I had collected showed that, while users could find everything at the site, they did not feel drawn into wanting to make a reservation since they didn't feel anything when viewing the site. I worked with the owners and we came up with the finalized version below. User feedback for this version was very positive, with most users saying they felt drawn into the vacation experience and relaxed after viewing the site. Most users said they would strongly consider booking a vacation at the cabins based on the experience at the Website.
