The Challenges:
Ramblers.com, a tour company that provides exceptional
walking tours in England and Scotland, was in desperate
need of a website redesign. Having been in business
for over 20 years with an outstanding reputation, a
strong following, and hundreds of satisfied repeat
customers, the web site clearly did not reflect the
excellence of their tours.
Their
original web site was disorganized, visually inconsistent,
unattractive, and most of all, didn't have a look that
matched the quality of their services. The site structure
was problematic from both a usability and coding standpoint.
Company and tour information was non-logically organized
and information pages didn't necessarily contain all
the information a visitor might need to know before booking
a tour. Furthermore, some of the content areas, like
the photo gallery, were uninviting, and the navigation
varied from page to page throughout the site. As an added
challenge, the company lacked a corporate identity and
logo, and wouldn't have a budget for us to create one
for this project, yet we still needed to help define
an image for Ramblers.com that was consistent with the
high reputation of their walking tours.
Our Strategy:
The objective was to redesign the site so it would be
more user-friendly, easier to navigate, provide clearer
and more organized information, have more photographs,
and be enticing to visitors, enough so that they'd
feel compelled to learn more about and book a tour
with the company.
The new site design needed to be on par with the other
travel tour companies in their class while still reflecting
Ramblers’ history and ongoing pursuit of providing
the best travel experiences for its customers. In addition
to the look and feel, there were several online forms
that needed improvement and some search engine optimization
content in place that had to be integrated into the
new site.
Working closely with the client, we gathered all the
necessary information for the new site and organized
it into logical categories that could be quickly accessed
from any page. The client provided us with lush landscape
photos from tour destinations, from which several were
selected for inclusion on the site, and the rest were
used to create two new easily navigable photo galleries
to replace their existing, clunky photo gallery. In addition,
we agreed to add footer links to each page for easy navigation
on pages with longer content and for visitors with accessibility
issues.
Once the design was approved by the client the graphics
were created and the new site was built. Following that
the site was extensively tested in all browsing environments
to assure the best possible cross-platform, cross-browser
user experience.
The Results:
The clean, contemporary design was coupled with a fresh
professional feel to reflect the company's expertise
in their field. Pages are still fast loading, even
with the added images, regardless of the type or speed
of the visitor's connection. With over 36 tours a year
to two countries and 12 destinations, each tour can
be easily accessed from any page on the site using
the navigation menus, which means customers can find
the information they're seeking quickly and efficiently.
To
help with the branding of the company who didn't have
the budget to afford the design of a logo, a simple logotype
was created that lends the site a feeling of old English
style and sophistication. To further form an identity
for the site, we structured the layout below the
company name with a lush landscape photo, navigation
across the top of the page, subnavigation along the left
column, and content below.
All the HTML files were built using markup that is optimized
for search engines and accessibility. This includes the
use of Cascading Style Sheets, Meta Tags, page titles,
Alt text, Server-Side Includes, footer links, and other
accessibility coding features. To attract even more business,
new enhanced forms were created for customers to signup
for the company enews letter, request a brochure, contact
the company, and apply for a tour. A new photo gallery
was designed to highlight the locations visitors could
see on their journeys, allowing potential customers to "visit" their
destination before booking a tour.
As a direct result of the redesign, the company saw
a dramatic increase in bookings for the 2005-2006 tour
year.
Site Launch:
The new website was launched
in October 2005 and was an immediate success with high
praise from both returning customers and the many new
travelers booking tours online with English Lakeland
Ramblers.
View our list of Luckychair clients,
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to stay on top of technical best practices while bringing
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in turn, helps us deliver superior business results to
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Company and tour information was non-logically organized
and information pages didn't necessarily contain all
the information a visitor might need to know before booking
a tour. Furthermore, some of the content areas, like
the photo gallery, were uninviting, and the navigation
varied from page to page throughout the site. As an added
challenge, the company lacked a corporate identity and
logo, and wouldn't have a budget for us to create one
for this project, yet we still needed to help define
an image for Ramblers.com that was consistent with the
high reputation of their walking tours.
English
Lakeland Ramblers 
