Tourism Website Donegal -HELP!

Northernsoul

Hi All.

I come from a small but busy seaside village in North Donegal. We have just been awarded a small grant to set up a visitor website that we hope will be a first port of call for people planning to visit the region. We are in the process of collating the imformation we need to publish on our new website, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any examples of sites that they have been impressed with from a tourism perspective. Ireland or international it doesn't matter, but maybe it's user functionality, use of imagery, or layout impressed you.
Would appreciate any examples of sites that you have come across. thanks in advance

Pixelcraft

Hi Northern soul, an absolutely beautiful website I found recently is Discover craigavon. Unfortunately this side of the border, I've yet to find a really good state sponsored website, unfortunately I think our tender process gets in the way of good creative work.

I'll keep an eye out for more examples, as I'm sure others will. Best of luck with your research.

p

Pixelcraft wrote: »

Hi Northern soul, an absolutely beautiful website I found recently is Discover craigavon.

You should probably just hire the guys who made that site actually, or the excellent poster above.

Sully

Nice site, but very much based on the Discover Ireland website. Excellent though, one of the best I have seen in a long time!

I did this one for my local town; http://www.discovertramore.ie/

Northernsoul

Wow pixelcraft thats EXACTLY what we're looking for thanks a million, will deffo be using this site of an example of what we're looking for!

Sully thanks also and well done on building a great site. Reall like the weather insert at the top, we're hoping to add a live webcam on the beach so surfers, kite enthausists etc can check the conditions before they arrive

many thanks guys appreciate it

Glenalla

Northernsoul wrote: »

Hi All.

I come from a small but busy seaside village in North Donegal. We have just been awarded a small grant to set up a visitor website that we hope will be a first port of call for people planning to visit the region. We are in the process of collating the imformation we need to publish on our new website, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any examples of sites that they have been impressed with from a tourism perspective. Ireland or international it doesn't matter, but maybe it's user functionality, use of imagery, or layout impressed you.
Would appreciate any examples of sites that you have come across. thanks in advance

Hi. I am in the tourism industry in Donegal, is your site up and running yet?

Tim M-U

Northernsoul wrote: »

Hi All.

I come from a small but busy seaside village in North Donegal. We have just been awarded a small grant to set up a visitor website that we hope will be a first port of call for people planning to visit the region. We are in the process of collating the imformation we need to publish on our new website, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any examples of sites that they have been impressed with from a tourism perspective. Ireland or international it doesn't matter, but maybe it's user functionality, use of imagery, or layout impressed you.
Would appreciate any examples of sites that you have come across. thanks in advance

There is a list of examples on a thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054852610

Northernsoul

Thanks guys. Glennalla - it will be up and running from next week - developers are putting the final touches to it - will send you the link when finished..

Glenalla

Northernsoul wrote: »

Thanks guys. Glennalla - it will be up and running from next week - developers are putting the final touches to it - will send you the link when finished..

Thanks NS, look forward to seeing it.

Northernsoul

Well guys the site is finally live - thanks again for your help and site reccommendations as they deffo went into ideas for our final version

So without further ado, here it is.... feedback much appreciated

http://www.visitballyliffin.com

It looks nice, but it doesn't validate:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.visitballyliffin.com%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0

That needs to be addressed. Viewed on a 1024px screen, the content all fits but is pushed up against left with no margin and surfer image doesnt fit in 1024 width.

The individual pages could use more images.

Basically, there are some issues that need to be sorted out, but should be easy to resolve. Nice one!

angrymob

Pixelcraft wrote: »

Hi Northern soul, an absolutely beautiful website I found recently is Discover craigavon. Unfortunately this side of the border, I've yet to find a really good state sponsored website, unfortunately I think our tender process gets in the way of good creative work.

I'll keep an eye out for more examples, as I'm sure others will. Best of luck with your research.

Is this really a good site ?

user/browser input validation is very poor and I spent about 1 sec.... on it

images are not sized and what a nice viewstate

If this is beautiful website well one needs to take a closer look ......:mad:

maybe security, load time , SEO are not what makes a beautiful site just how it looks :eek:

Is a beauitful house one that is built well or one that looks good on the outside !

Pixelcraft

I can barely make out what you posted - but I'll try.
It's a well designed site, looks great imo.

Yes there are validation errors, it seems quite accessible though

Don't understand 'images are not sized and what a nice viewstate'

SEO has no bearing on whether a site is beautiful or not, none whatsoever.

p

angrymob - it's always possible to nitpick at a site and show areas where it's not perfect. Most projects and clients have no interest in paying for a 'perfect site' so people do what's possible within the timeframe and budget. I doubt this was a high-paying job, and it's a small area. It's important when critiquing a site to look at the larger picture, not small technical details like input validation.

Is this a good site, yes. Does it represent the area well, yes. Will it help people choose to go there over other locations, yes. Is it perfect, no, could they improve some seo things, yes, but overall, is it better than the vast majority of tourism sites for small areas, yes, does it achieve it's goals, absolutely.