work in progress - critic welcome

hi this is a website ive been doing for a while now - just changed a few things

any ideas what needs changing ??

http://www.watersedgehotel-blackpool.co.uk/index.htm

thanks

Love the sun, when was that last seen in blackpool? I think you need to work on the navigation menu, just to make it more prominent and grounded, at the moment it seems lost in the header photo. Also the booking form on the home page needs bringing to the front, the tower png you have overlaps the form so that the month drop down can only be clicked on the extreme left. Also a little tidy up on some of the text, align elements to each other and be aware of spacing, for instance on the Tarrif 2013 page the booking form is right up next to the text above, just space it down a little.

Overall you have done a good job and certainly a lot of work has been done on the site.

Hi thanks sketch - I never saw that tower overlapping - thanks - I have taken your comments on board - yh your right about the nav bar - I will try design one of my own :-) thanks

A number of typos I am afraid Refurbihed dinning on your Welcome page and minuets and garenteed on the Tariff page. I politely suggest that someone spell and grammar check your site as there are a number of errors.

Trukkerz, is it your hotel?

hi no its not mine its a friends and thats who sent me the typos in the text - i should of checked it i know - will check it thproughly before its finished

cheerz

It's just too busy with too many gadgets and conflicting styles for me. The QR code on the home page. How will anyone get to scan that?

I'd also say that the text is very small on my machine and it looks like the small print people put at the bottom of the page.

My advice would be to revise the text so there is far less of it, have it proofread (it's full of spelling mistakes), and really don't put things on the page that are complete distractions - spinning suns, rushing room pictures, QR codes, cartoon guestbooks, sparkling banners.

The message should be - in plain text - that blackpool is a great place to visit and the hotel is a great place to stay. The gadgets don't help that message and would put me off staying at the hotel.

Here is an example of a hotel website - it's not perfect, by any means, but it makes me think I'd be happy to stay there:

http://www.the-woodlands-hotel.co.uk/

Compare the simple design that focuses on the hotel, not bling.

hi thanks pauland I do understand what you are saying - but the sun and gimmicky things are all requested by the owner - I will have to have a word - The qr code was put there last night - not really well up on qr codes i just put it there to see if it worked - which text is small ? all seems ok on my pc

Thanks for your advice - I will look into it cheerz

I suppose the owner likes to convey a fun sort of look to convey the fun of the resort :-)

This is what I see - the text is small.

mmm see what you mean - the text was 13pt so i have upped it to 16 point and got rid of all the gadgets and the sun at moment - take a look !

cheerz

I'm glad to see some of the bling gone, though in part I really regret making my original comments because you've moved so far from where you were and far from the example I thought represented a simpler design example. I think I preferred the original header and menu layout better. Watch out for the general colour - grey isn't great for promoting happiness in the sunshine, and dark backgrounds with black text can be hard to read.

Lets be clear, my preferences need not be your choices and it's your choice (or really your clients choice) how you do this. I am trying to lead you to a simpler design aesthetic. I thought my example link was a good example of what might inspire you. I don't want to take over the design of the site by proxy. I originally made comments because the site is for a business and the quality of the website can be important to the success of the business.

If it's any help I hated many of the Blackpool hotel sites I came upon!

its ok it is in a sort of transformation anyway so the grey will probably change - and yes a lot of the blackpool sites leave a lot to be desired - even mine :-) lol - Thanks for your comments