How Do We Create Great Travel Web Design?

How do we create alluring TRAVEL WEB DESIGN? Pleasure travel is primarily an emotional experience; a quest for adventure, thrills, romance, escape, drama, happiness . . . and more! Good travel web design gives the visitor more than information, it captures the emotional appeal of the destination. Indeed, it touches the heart of the viewer.

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Imagine cool blue waters gently lapping against a brilliant white sand beach . . . Can you hear the gentle sounds of the waves? You linger with the tall cool drink of your choice while being pampered endlessly by an attentive waiter . . . Your mind drifts to the culinary delights that await come dinner. Can you see yourself in that setting? Compelling travel web design can put you there!. Indeed, carefully crafted travel web design can stir the heart, and create a yearning for faraway places!

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This is the strategy we use to make our travel web sites more appealing to visitors. Do more than inform, tug at the heart strings! A good example of this approach is our travel web design for Portobello Club, a destination in the Mexican Riviera Maya. Here is how that vision was achieved:

Travel Web Design Home Page:
The home page is the most important page in the web site. It provides an invitation to the viewer. The design must beckon, tease and entice the viewer to enter the web site for further exploration. Here is where our talent and experience as web designers pays off. Looking at that white beach, inviting waters, and dreamy blue skies urges the viewer to use their imagination, and become a part of the scene. To enhance the effect, we used soft edged gradients and complimentary colors that create a dreamlike feeling to the page.

Here is why good web design is not cheap. It took an extraordinary amount of time and research to find the right image for this design (the design itself was chosen after more than four different designs drafts were discussed with the client). It had to convey the right emotional appeal, and have the open airy look I wanted for the home page. Also, I wanted the colors in the sky and sand to be beautiful on their own. I took the colors from the main stock photo and used them as the color palette for the balance of the home page. Many times, finding the perfect image takes hours of research and testing. But it is worth the effort! Simplicity was an essential element here as well. The home page had to convey an uncluttered sense of restfulness and calm. Therefore, the visual presentation is elegant and simple. Indeed, the prominent tag line says it all, "Paradise is calling."

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Travel Web Design Content Page:
One of the principles I follow in web design is to make the site feel like a beautiful magazine layout, not a web site! People love to languish over a beautiful magazine, flipping the pages and soaking in the beautiful layouts and well composed copy. I want viewers to do the same in my web sites! To that end, the content pages are designed to mimic the pages of a luxury travel magazine. How so?

First of all, the photos used must be beautiful. We again did an extraordinary amount of research finding the right stock photos for the layout. We also convinced our client not to use the dated photos he had available. Rather, he hired a photographer to provide beautiful images that really highlight the appeal of this resort. Providing the best photography possible is essential to a great online presentation. They photos have the responsibility of selling a travel destination to someone what has never visited the destination. It makes no sense to skimp on photography. We kept within budget but by careful selection were able to create a compelling visual presentation of the travel destination.

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Secondly, the layout of the content pages should look at home in Vogue, Conde Nast Traveler, or other high-end fashion or travel magazines. We sought a good balance between generously sized photos and text. Using a few tricks with html tables, we were able to mimic the text wrap effect seen in magazine layouts. Each page had to feel like a beautiful spread in a magazine. The overall effect invites the reader eye to languish over beautiful photography and well proportioned copy. We did not want the viewer to scroll down on most pages. Therefore the copy is written and fitted so that it reads beautifully with the confines of the design. One additional small detail that adds much to the design: Each page has its color palette tweaked to match the photos selected for that page. A small refinement that adds to a polished design!

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The overall effect is a web design that feels like a luxury magazine. It is inviting, easy to read, and has the sumptuous look to support the Riviera Maya destination it promotes. A simple presentation. Yet, it is the result of much hard work and sound marketing and design strategies. This is what travel web design becomes in the hands of newark1.com! Let us create your next great travel web site!

Donald Peterson