Zen Garden BNB redesign
A quick and dirty redesign of a simple website
Everyone knows there is a million and a half small businesses with bad websites, even the word-press stuff that’s out there is mostly garbage. Because of this I wanted to do a quick and dirty redesign of a small bed and breakfast website without using wordpress. I picked a few things to focus on improving and briefly describe what I did to change them.
http://theboltdesign.com/dgm2740/Final/index.php
Better Menu System
The current menu system is way too long, contains pointless sublinks, as well as links that should be under some kind of a hierarchy or structure if not eliminated entirely. They also use the word “Environ” with is too obscure a word for this application. Simplification would be a good idea to help potential guest find what they are looking for.
In the redesign you can see a more readable, focused and modern navigation. Other items can still be added to the navigation and still maintain the relatively clean look if the potential client so desired. Another added design bonus is the improved logo that looks better and is more readable and flexible for mobile application.
More Focused Information
Likely this website was made by someone inexperienced so it has a disorganised thrown together feel especially on the front page. If the information is consolidated shortened and in some cases eliminated It would make for a simpler more effective page layout.
The current design is (as seen on the left) is sporadic and mostly unorganised. It also just has too much information on it for the style of website. The redesign is much more simple, images can still be shown but are no organised in to a slider. There is however, a few things that I might add under the main paragraph in the form of links and/or images to give the front page a little more structure. There should also be some kind of easy to find call to action to book a night at the bnb.
Better mobile experience
They do have an existing mobile version of their website however an updated concentrated version would help guest get to information faster and easier. The added bonus will be an improved google ranking and accessibility.
The original pricing structure is cut off on the mobile version and is kind of a convoluted and overly complicated. The new version (the one on the right) has a more simple pricing guide and could be expanded for their multiple night pricing (new on their current site since redesign). Included for relevance are some of the photos for the room so people know the rooms that match the prices.
Conclusion
Aside from a some typography issues and a few layout issues I think this is stands as a decent quick remodel of a small website. This would be something that I would consider offering the small business maybe in return for a favor or may just for fun. After a few tweaks I think they would like it and probably jump on the opportunity for something that shows of the beauty and uniqueness of their establishment.
