Place of design

Journey Africa is a company that sells bespoke luxury safaris and holidays in Africa.  This is a substantial sized website, running to some 360 pages

We used DHTML, AJAX, HTML, JavaScript, and some server side technologies to pull this off

Address: www.journeyafrica.co.uk

Design process
We provided the client with an initial template which covered a few page variants.  We bounced a few ideas back and forth, and come up with a winning idea that stuck. One notable part of the design is the scrolling tab method of embedding lots of information in a small space on the page, also incorporated into this was a DHTML AJAX slide-show that could accommodate differing amounts of images from property to property

We then begun a process of populating the site with the very varied content, and the flexible design provided a good framework for presenting very differing content structures from page to page

The template
The template was designed in house, and reflects the subject matter perfectly, a warm rich easy going template, offering easy navigation and a even site flow, from page to page

Sub template
There is a sub-template for the accommodation pages, which is presented in a small tabbed slider.  Within the tabbed slider there is layered information about the properties, pricing, a individualised contact form and a mini image gallery. This technique is really useful for presenting lots of unified information quickly, which from a usability perspective is the goal

Technologies used
We used DHTML, HTML, JavaScript, and some server side technologies to pull this off

Presenting the images for each property
The gallery / slideshow component we used was implemented because of it’s ability to show differing numbers of images between each page, each image being in any dimensional format – either landscape or portrait orientation

Information
There are so many different webpage’s on this site that early on we decided to have two consistent menus. Information related pages on the left hand menu and destination (product) pages from the top drop down menu.  Our testing panel found this really easy to find pages and loved the consistent look

E-commerce?
Not on this site – the point of the company involved is a true bespoke package, tailored to the customer. Any form of e-commerce would have destroyed the human input.  However, due to the nature and scale of the site, we have used personalised contact forms, so the client knows what page of the site a client used the contact form on

CSS and typography
From the outset we wanted nice clear, crisp consistent typography. We took a standard web font and carefully adjusted the line, word and character spacing to achieve this

Search Engine Optimisation
This is the next stage in the site build.  As per all the sites we build, SEO comes naturally. We tend to individually SEO every page on the site, not just the front page, this gives us great results. As we will say time and time again – content is king, and the best way to ensure great search engine placement is to have lots of relevant content

Customer testimonial

Journey Africa was a life long dream and eventually became a reality when I faced up to the fact that I was in a boring full time job and even worse a nightmare of a boss. Then along came Place of Design and Richard King.

It was mainly through Richard’s positive outlook, creativity and patience that I have the website that I thought would never reach this standard of work. I had never attempted anything like this before but knew what I wanted, Richard has been on the same page as myself throughout, his contribution has been worth its weight in gold and an absolute pleasure to work with.

From start to finish communication has been open, honest and transparent, and full credit must be given for Richard’s insight into dissecting my sometimes many vague requests and ideas.

Would I hesitate in recommending Place of Design, no not at all, to find a trustworthy, honest, hard working and amicable person to work alongside in creating your Company is truly a rare find. It is without doubt that Journey Africa and Place of Design will be working together on future projects.

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