We released a new visual design and want feedback from our startup peers. | Hacker News Reader

We released a new visual design and want feedback from our startup peers.

demeure.com

9 pointsdannomatic17 comments

To be honest, I think it is very poor. There is no consistency. It looks like the designer has tried to use every tool in the designer toolbox, from the flowery logo and drop shadowed text to the bevelled buttons and decorative borders.

Superficially it looks okay as there are some quite nice individual elements but they don't fit together. A case of a design being less than the sum of its parts.

I also counted no less than 14 different treatments of text (font size, font type, color, etc). That is way too much and perhaps explains why the design looks overly cluttered.

The dark borders around the main photos are too heavy for the lightness of the rest of the design. The drop shadows make this worse. Get rid of them both.

Sorry to be harsh but you did ask.

Thanks for the honest feedback -- definitely appreciated. Text treatments can indeed be reined in, as might several of the extraneous elements for the reasons you've pointed out. Always good to get fresh eyes and concrete criticism. Thanks again.

I would consider removing either the dropshadow and/or the beveled borders on the images. I feel like it's drawing too much visual strength in relation to the rest of the content. The images already take up a large portion of the screen, no need to emphasize them any further. Other than that it looks great.

Can't tell you how many times I wrestled with those very details. Probably not the best decision to go with both those effects. Argh, seduced by the shiny bling once again!

The site had a nice look overall. The pattern in the header drop-shadow is kind of cool, but more distracting because it looks like it is being accidentally covered up and a bit busy.

I agree with what others have said regarding the color scheme being a bit too tan overall.

I also keep looking at the logo and thinking that is a bit too busy, and I don't really understand why it has the floral shapes emerging from it.

The beveling on the image frames also feels a bit heavy, especially with the dark drop shadow.

In general the imagery and the copy take a bit of analysis before getting a handle on what the company is about, and even then I am not sure why I should choose you for my vacation planning.

Thanks Nat0, you're reinforcing some themes emerging from this discussion. Awesome.

The logo's a challenge to work with, though we're trying not to change it -- at least, not right now -- due to some brand recognition in the villa rental industry.

Nice overall. A few thoughts:

-More color hierarchy. (Maybe too much tan?)

- the 2nd photo is nice but the 1st and 3rd don't jump out at me. Invest in great photos.

- Uncertain about who you are and what you're selling. It says "browse our villas" but they aren't really your villas, you only find the best ones right? If that's the case you should mention somewhere on the main page the hours and hours you've spent looking for only the best deals to save me time.

-the word villa seems really specific. A little intimidating since I'm not 100% sure how a "villa" differs from other accommodations.

good luck!

Agree on the tan. It feels like the attentive draw between the main and side columns should be better managed. As it is, it's too easy to drift between the two, which detracts from what you're trying to present in the main column.

We're moving away from what was previously an even more brown-and-tan-heavy design. With your encouragement, we'll keep trucking in that direction! Thx too for the feedback re: main and side columns. Will look into that.

Great points, thanks very much!

That 2nd photo is certainly amazing. I hear ya on the first and third, though. We're supporters of Creative Commons (stock photos make me shudder), so finding killer images can take a surprising amount of time... and sometimes you miss the mark a bit in the end.

Uncertainty about what Demeure is selling: definitely something to fix. We own only a small fraction of the villas on our site, but we describe them all as "our villas" because we've done the legwork to select them -- and importantly, you transact directly with us as a traveller.

The term "villa" is pretty much interchangeable with "home". It's the most common term in some of our hottest regions, so we decided to test out using it as the primary keyword. Your comments are great, though, as that's the sort of concern we're keeping our eyes peeled for.

I personally like it, except for the flowers under the header that seem cut off, and the logo seems to need some clean-up. Maybe just leaving the top ornament on the "d" and the ending ornament on the last "e" could do the trick.

Getting some weird artifacts in the drop shadow at the top on Lion and Chrome 13.0.782.99 beta attached a screenshot.

http://i.minus.com/ibV6ug.png

LOL that's the best point of criticism so far. Unless I misunderstand what you're referring to, those "artifacts" are in fact decorative elements intended to echo the rather flowery logo. Some people love 'em -- but others find them like motes of sand in their eye or itches they can't scratch.

Thats funny, I thought Lion was acting up. So yeah, you guys should perhaps think a second time about those :)

I know that this is terrible feedback, but I have to say it. Your site looks like a blog. As a blog, it looks nice, but as a travel site I don't know if blog is the vibe you want.

Also, I don't think there is a very strong call to action button on individual villas. Request a reservation is below the fold at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Overall, right now it seems like your site is designed for window shopping, not reservation setting.

Hey dude, that's because you were reading the blog post about the site update. Try here: http://demeure.com we're very much taking real live reservations and processing real live credit cards.

Terrible feedback? No way, it's all good. Thanks for taking the time. It does have a bloggy vibe, which is somewhat what we were going for -- at least, our sales approach is to become a trusted source of content about villa travel, as opposed to a more in-your-face hard-sell. But perhaps the pendulum has swung too far that direction.

Regarding the call to action: agreed. Those property pages haven't yet been updated, and they're on our hit list. We've really only rolled out the home page and benefits page at this point.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com