Sunstone Tours & Cruises

by deconspray Feb 7, 2012 0 Comment

This was a redesign project for a long-time client, a niche travel agency located in Malibu, California. The lead-generation website features small-ship adventure cruise vacations, targeting retirees and affluent professionals.

The original site, itself a third-generation design, presented an outdated design, was tables-based, and was increasingly difficult to manage. While the end goal was to place the site on a content management system, an overhaul of the design and code was crucial to the conti9nued success of the website. The redesign itself took a couple months, followed by several months of content population. The launch of the site took place shortly after the beginning of the year.

The redesigned website features new content and features, including detailed date & rate information, itinerary maps, cruise extensions and videos. Social media marketing features were added, including links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Delicious. A Tell-a-Friend feature was added to allow for viral marketing. Opportunities to receive brochures, email newsletters and to make inquiries were made more prominent. A tabbed panel interface was added to allow efficient content presentation.

One thing that did not change with this redesign was the branding. The travel agency’s logo, while dated and not supportive of the affluent audience for the site’s products, is nonetheless easily recognized by the targeted audience. The business decided to keep the current logo at this time. The logo will be revisited during a future website update.

As previously mentioned, a future project will re-platform the static website onto a content management system to allow for travel information updates by the business owner.

Note: A heartfelt thanks goes out to those who provided valuable feedback during this project, including Debbie Kong, Becky Davis, Stephen B. Starr, Kristine Jubeck, Anita Johri, Steve Maxey and John Petroshius.