Redesign of www.travelrack.co.za
A Brochure Download Site for Travel

The Home Page, Before

TravelRack is a page that enables you to download travel brochures in a manner equivalent to E-books in that it requires the use of a proprietary, though free, viewer program. It raises the issue of whether the need for the viewer will deter some visitors, but for this review we're only addressing one issue: redesigning the instructional nature of the home page. Here's what it looks like before my suggestions (the yellow highlights are mine):

Notice that there's a 6-step procedure woven into small text prose. Techwriters out there are turning in our cubicles at the mere mention of it.

After... Here's Our Idea for the Page:

Our solution is the venerable link-and-blurb, well they're not really links, just headings but the point is the same. And we deliberately cheat, making it look like three steps.

Now we're not representing ourselves as graphic artists... this is just a super-quick mockup of the use of space and general notion that we think you should aim for. I'm sure an artist can come up with a better motif for the three sections. Browse the web and you'll find examples. Here's one we found. And we'd probably add a "Details" link at the end of each blurb, or just make sure that the sub pages do the job. The only step that should really need verbatim instructions is #3 since there's no page to hold 'em by the hand.