[Project Complete] - Charming Holiday House for Rental - Website Template - $600

[greteb]

(Admin code added by Palmer - 6UL785229C740862N)

[Due Aug. 24th] - Charming Holiday House for Rental - Website Template - $600

Company Details


This is a holiday house for rental, which is located in Spain.

1a) Name of Company (House): Casa Bruun

1b) Company Tag Line or slogan: Charming holiday house for rental

(However, we are open for other suggestions)

NOTE: Furthermore, as we assume that the company name (house name) and slogan will be used in the header/logo area, we would like to include the following: “Puerto Banus, Marbella, Costa del Sol, Spain”, which is the location of the house.

1c) Do you have a company logo? No

1d) Do you have a corporate visual identity (a customized (non stock) logo and color scheme carried out throughout your office, stationery, business cards, etc.)? No, however, we have some recent photos that is attached here for design purposes


1e) What is the nature of your business?: Briefly describe your products or services: This is a holiday house for rental. It is located nearby Puerto Banus, Marbella in Spain. There are several activities in the area. Golf, sunny beaches, shopping and dining can be seen as the main attractions in the area.

1f) Who is your target market? Who are you hoping to reach with your site? Adults from 30+ with or without children (the house accommodates 10 people).


Website Details

1b) Do you have an existing website? If so, what is the URL? No, only the pictures that is attached to this post.

2b) IMPORTANT: Please list at least 3 URLs (web addresses) of high quality sites that you like the look of (these do not have to be sites who’s business is similar to yours. It aids us in determining what your design style is.) Please consider layout, colors, navigation, graphics, and typography. We did not find any specific websites, however if this is strictly a must – let us know and we will try to find something.

3b) What colors or color schemes would you like? We have no specific preferences for colors or color schemes. However we were thinking that maybe using black as a background color would help to enhance contrasts to the pictures, as we are looking for a bright and eye-catching look.

4b) List the Navigation links for your Site:
If possible we would like two designs, which are identical except for the menu (the header/logo area can remain in English for both), as we would like to have it in both English and Norwegian.

English menu:
“The house” – “Information” – “Pictures” – “Activities” – “Prices & Bookings” – “Contact us”

Norwegian menu:
“Huset” – “Informasjon” – “Bilder” – “Aktiviteter” – “Priser & Bestilling” – “Kontakt oss”


5b) What type of look are you trying to achieve? (e.g. clean, high-tech, conservative, warm, flashy, etc.) We are trying to achieve a warm, classy and elegant design. However, we would like some bright and neat colors, so the page achieves an “eye-catching” feel. (as described in 3b)

6b) Please provide the addresses of competitors' sites, if possible: No direct competitors known with own websites.

7b) Do you have any images for use in the design of your site? If not, do you have images, can you offer suggestions of what you type of imagery you feel would be most suitable for your website:
See the attached pictures in this post. We have also taken a look at previous designs requested in the forum, and found that we liked the concept to:
“[Project Complete] Motorcycle traveling agency template - $600 - http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20750 (http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20750)”,

where it was used a bright and colorful picture in the logo/header area – a suggestion from our side might be one of the pictures of the house (for example: DSC_2161.JPG).


Deadlines and Deliverables

1c) What is the deadline for your template design? No specific deadline, however, within 2-3 weeks would be preferable. Therefore we have choosen to put the deadline to August 24th, however if strictly necessary it can be altered.

2c) Will you require HTML coding? (Yes/No) YES

3c) If so, will you require it to be ONLY CSS layout? (Yes/No --- {fees (http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/../pricelist.htm)}) I don’t think so… What do you recommend?

4c) How many pages coded will you require delivered? ({fees (http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/../pricelist.htm)}) One mainpage, which is the link “The house” (we were thinking that it might be 3 boxes – 2 small boxes on either the right or left side, one for google maps (location) and one for the weather, while the big box should contain some information and pictures) – However this is only suggestions, and the box concept is not strictly necessary, only a suggestion.
Then we would like one plain page, which we can alter after our own preferences (this would be used for the remaining links).

Are there any other comments/specific ideas we should keep in mind while designing your project? Not at this point.

Please let us know if anything is unclear or more information is needed!

[Kogar]

Hello,

Here is my concept. Feedback appreciated.

Regards.

[will]

Here is my concept :D I added a testimonial at the bottom left as I thought the idea might possible customers :D Let me know what you like and what you dont. Anything can be adjusted.

[greteb]

Hi everyone,


Sorry for late feedbacks, we have deliberately waited to receive as many concepts and ideas as possible. Thank you for your contributions so far!



However, we hope to see more contributions and ideas!


This is our feedbacks so far:


Kogar:
We liked that the whole picture of the house is used. However, we feel that the four boxes on the bottom part takes too much focus away from the house. Maybe adding some boxes with location and various things would put the focus back onto the house?



Furthermore, we did not like the “book a room” box, however could we maybe transform this into a “Personal note” where we write some welcoming words?


We also liked the use of orange however, we feel that the design so far is a bit too simplistic – we would like to add a more elegant and exclusive touch. (this is the most important part)


We also see that the picture of the house is flipped horizontally. Could this be flipped back to its original? We guess that the box (“book a room” -> “Personal note”) also has to be moved to the left hand side, which should be okay as we are changing it to a personal note.


The top part where the location and language is takes too much space – by moving it, the header part can be made smaller. We also feel that the font used in “Casa Bruun” is a bit thin, and kind of disappears in the design – maybe another font would be nicer. We would also like it to be a bit more exciting and outstanding.


Can you also change the language chooser from “Espanol” to “Norwegian”? And maybe add a small picture of the country’s flag?



Will:
We like the elegant touch to this design. Would it also be possible to see it in more color schemes? (For example orange?). We would also like to expand the picture, so we see the entire house. (top part as well).


Would it also be possible to make the logo (“Casa Bruun”) a bit more outstanding and exciting?


We are not quite sure we liked the “here is what our visitors say” box – it is a bit flashy. However, we like the idea, and think maybe we can transform the idea into a smaller box and give it an own subpage (similar to “online tour” and “location”) and then place it underneath the location box.


We also need a language chooser somewhere on the page – “English” and “Norwegian”. And maybe add a small picture of the country’s flag?

[will]

I ll work on the changes ASAP :D

[silviu-ivan]

Hi greteb,

I will also work on a concept for your project.

Cheers,
Silviu

[Kogar]

Hi greteb,

Thank you for the feedback. Here are my tweaks, please let me know if you want to change things around.

Regards.

[mightymau]

here is mine :)

[will]

Here are the changes :D I do not know if the online tour is a video or not but I added a gallery slideshow at the homepage. It can also be a video so the visitors can directly see it as soon as they arrive to your site.

[silviu-ivan]

Here is my concept.

The main focus points of the site are:


the big image with the house, which can be turned into a fading slideshow with 3-4 different images

the footer/background of the site which gives the "wow" effect to the whole site. I've used an image representing a shot of Puerto Banus overlooking the port, beach, city and the mountains. I've treated the image, giving it a vintage effect that just says summer, hot, elegant. And with the "Warm regards from Puerto Banus" message in the bottom it creates the illusion that it could be part of an old post card. The background is there, but it doesn't get in the way of the actual content.


For the main content I've used some small intro text that will link to the "The House" page. I've also added an Attractions section which uses some nice images to give the user an overview of the things thy can do in the region. These will link to the "Activities" page.

For the weather widget, I've used one from wunderground.com (http://www.wunderground.com/). Please let me know if you would like to use a different weather forecasting site.

I look forward to your feedback. Anything can be changed, added, removed.

Cheers,
Silviu

v. 1A
http://silviu-ivan.com/do/casa-bruun/casa-bruun-silviu-v1a.jpg

[DesignGeneral]

Here's my entry.

Cheers,
Adrian

[greteb]

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your contributions, it has been a tough choice. We have after careful consideration chosen to go on with Kogar’s concept.

Our feedback to Kogar:
· We would like that the menu emphasizes clearer the chosen subpage. Could you please give some suggestion? Maybe a long dotted line could be nice?

· We are a bit unsure whether we want the “Welcome to Casa Bruun” box, could we see 2 examples (one without it and one where the black box’s opacity is more faded).

· We are not so comfortable with the bottom part of the page yet. We suggest maybe changing it to 3 or more boxes (or two boxes and an area to write a welcoming text). Our mainpoint here is that we want more information on the frontpage. The boxes as they are now stand out a bit too much – maybe making them smaller and tuning down the whiteness would help. We like the “Nearby activities” box – especially the small photos used. However, we believe it can be improved by making it shorter in the width, which can maybe be done by putting the 4 small photos in a 2x2 box formation? We also have a desire to get the first attached picture into the design somehow – maybe using it as a photo gallery box or something – suggestions here would be appreciated. We would like the bottom part to be exciting and interesting, but we do not want it to take the focus away from the top part.

[Kogar]

Hello greteb,

Thank you for choosing my design. We are having some storm power outages, I'll get you the revision as soon as I can.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards.

[will]

Congrats, Kogar :D !!!

[Kogar]

Thank you Will :)

Here is my revision.

I think we can take out the Welcome Msg from the banner and place it under. The banner will rotate images, so we can have 3-4 rotating images, making it look dynamic.

Please let me know what are your thoughts so far.

Regards.

[greteb]

Hi Kogar,

Thank you for your revisions.

Our comments are as following:
1. We love the top part of the page - so no changes are needed here.
2. As for the the bottom part we still feel some changes are needed. We liked the old "activities box" style better (with the orange), could you try to make it smaller in the width by maybe putting the activities pictures in a 2x2 box? Could you also make the orange heading a bit smaller in the height? Could you also apply this style to the other boxes - location etc.? Furthermore we think the "Welcome to…" part can be in its current style. Could we see these changes arranged in some different versions?

[Kogar]

Thank you for the feedback.

Revision attached, please let me know if these changes will work or you would like to see something else.

Regards.

[greteb]

Hi Kogar,

Thank you for your revision. This is absolutely an improvement of the bottom part. However, could we try to add an extra box that contains “Online Tour” (we could use one of the other pictures that we attached)? I think maybe the “Get directions box & Local Weather” should be a little higher and maybe smaller in the width. Could we also change the weather app so it displays a picture of the current weather – sun, rain, cloudy etc.? It should also maybe blend better into the page color wise (orange, white, beige etc.)

[Kogar]

Hello greteb,

Here is the revision.

I toned down the "Get Directions & Local Weather" area and added Online Tour as you mentioned.

I am using the weather widget from here: http://www.wunderground.com/stickers/classic.html ... Please let me know if there is a style you'd like to use. I can try and look for other places which provide weather widgets.

Regards.

[greteb]

Dear Kogar,

Thank your for the revision and sorry for a late reply.

The online tour and nearby activities look very nice, however, would it be possible to make the images in the nearby activities box a bit bigger and more symmetric?

The Welcome to Casa Bruun heading and text area looks nice.

Would it be possible to make the google map a bit bigger? As for the local weather we would appreciate if it could be more integrated to the webpage (design wise – we tried looking a bit but could not really find anything special). Maybe other weather widgets would fit the design better? What we would like is: A 3-day forecast with temperature (in Celsius) and a small image (maybe text also – e.g. “Sun”, “Rainy” etc.) for each day indicating the weather would be very nice. This weather box can also be a bit bigger, if possible.

Look forward to your revisions.

Best regards,
Greteb

[Kogar]

Dear Greteb,

Thank you for the feedback. No problem about the delay.

I was looking around and found a weather widget that may interest you but of course I had to rearrange some of the elements. Please let me know if this works for you.

The other option for the weather widget was a single day and much small in size: 160 x 86

Regards.

[greteb]

Hello Kogar,

Thank you for the revision.

Could we also please see a version with the small weather widget? We kind of feel that the text area got a bit small width-wise.

If you could make the google map and weather widget the same height, and have the text area above. (similar to one of the previous entries.

Best regards,
Greteb

[Kogar]

Hello,

Definitely. Here it is with the smaller weather widget.

Regards.

[greteb]

Dear Kogar,

Thank for the revision.

The new weather widget looks much better!

We have two questions:

1. Would it be possible to make the google map and small version of the weather widget a bit higher? Or does the weather widget have a fixed height?

2. Would it be possible to the the weather widget in a beige color theme? Or a orange color scheme that is more similar to the one we are using?

If the above is possible, we would love to see some different revision versions.

Best regards,
Greteb

[greteb]

Oh, we forgot; would it be possible to see a revision example with a similar faded black area with text on the bottom of "Near by activities" just as in the "online tour"?

The text could for example be "Explore more"

Best regards,
Greteb

[Kogar]

Hello Greteb,

Here is the revised version with 'Explore More' option on Activities.

As far as weather widget is concerned, I can force it to be taller but it may lose some resolution. Here is where I am getting it from, you can see different color options available.

http://widgets.hotelscombined.com/Weather-Widget.htm?gclid=CKfGgv7Jw6sCFUNN4AodBVC12Q

Regards.

[greteb]

Hi Kogar,

Thank you for your revision. We have decided to go with the previous revision that you posted "09-29-2011, 06:42 AM". We are now very happy with this, and do not want to do any further changes.

Could you also make a plain page with the possibility of having a box (that we can adjust ourself in the html coding) similar to the "Nearby activities" box with the orange and same background that has some kind of texture, or something else that fits in on a plain page according to the design?

Best regards,
Greteb

[Kogar]

Hello Greteb,

Alright sounds good. I'll try to code it up asap and will send you the HTML for a box similar to Nearby Activities.

Regards.

[greteb]

Dear Kogar,

We forgot to ask; would it be possible to fit in "Availability" in the menu? And is this a thing we can change on our own in the html coding in the future or is it implemented into the graphics?


Regards,
Greteb

[Kogar]

Dear Greteb,

Sure I'll add it up. It can be used either as HTML or Graphic... whatever you prefer. I will provide you with PSD file, so in case of it being a graphic... you can always change. Let me know.

Thank you.

[greteb]

Hi Kogar,

I guess html would be the easiest for us, however, if having it as a graphic looks nicer we should go for that.

Regards,
Greteb

[Kogar]

Hello Greteb,

I have sent you a PM the URL to download the files from.

Regards.