WE EXPLAIN HOW TO REPLICATE THIS FASHIONABLE STYLE BY DESIGNING A THEMED TEMPLATE FOR THE TRAVEL TRADE. ANYONE FOR SOME SUN?
This tutorial demonstrates how to build a travel website in Photoshop and Illustrator. The main point of vacations is to have an unforgettable getaway, and the website should emphasise the sense of escape and exoticism. This can be done visually by adding elements that inspire beautiful destinations, such as palm trees, sandy textures and well-composed photos. The last thing anyone wants to experience with their travels is digging incessantly for information on their dream spots, so the ease of navigation should feel like the prelude to a flawless vacation. This can be done with an organised sidebar, logical categorisation and a design that works throughout the entire page. The aim is to make an instant impression through stunning visuals, with a competent search design to back it up. A great travel website can vastly enhance the whole experience because, after all, the purpose of vacationing is to make wonderful and lasting memories.
01 The audience
The first thing to establish is who the primary audience is. Are they young people wanting a fun getaway with friends? Or a couple looking for a romantic excursion? Most vacation sites cater to people of all age groups, so regardless of the primary focus, it should contain a universal design that everyone finds appealing.
02 The package
What makes a great vacation? It could the destination, deals and leisure activities. Whatever it is, show it as a special feature on the homepage to attract attention. Not everything needs to be displayed upon entering the site because it is too overwhelming. Instead, highlight the hot deals to draw the user in.
03 The layout
It takes a few seconds for a user to decide if they like a site or not, so the design heavily influences its effectiveness. Virtually all websites contain these sections: banner or title, body and navigation. We chose the banner and body as the main visual focus, with the navigation sidebar as a second focu
04 Guides
Guides are the easiest and most efficient way to keep a design in top shape. In order to add a guide in Photoshop, bring up the Ruler with Cmd/Ctrl+R and simply drag it out. To hide again, just press Cmd/Ctrl+;. Use the guides as bounding boxes to visually aid design and alignments.
05 Organisational flow
Construct a solid workflow to keep track of all the images and files. A travel website most likely has a large photo collection with multiple versions of the same or similar photos. A great way to keep things in order is to name the files accordingly. We used this system: companyname_projectname_version_date.filename.
