Lea I know exactly what you’re saying. I guess the key is making the site’s navigation pretty intuitive which is something I always try to put a lot of time into. Personally, I’d be more inclided to stick around a layout similar to the three sites I’ve mentioned that at a regular blog with one post after another all the way down the main page and categories on the side somewhere. I guess I like to be presented with obvious sections for a site up front.

I think there are differences between blogs and travel magazine type sites like this. I think the move to a more graphical look is good for the type of sites they are.

Nath I think I commented before that Joomla makes my head explode. I’ve only just finished sewing my chin back on and I don’t think I’ll be making another attempt anytime soon. I’m even a bit overwhelmed by WP. I think I might have a tinker with that Mimbo theme you’ve used to see how it works. I find this all really frustrating because I know exactly what I want and how I want everything to fit together and I think some of it might be complicated for me. I’d be tempted to get someone to build the site shell and let me fill in the graphics and content.

All big ideas but there won’t be any go ahead for awhile. Plus I’m not sure that I want to mess with Travoholic.com since it’s already a good earner. I wonder if I’d be better starting a whole new site…

Worldpress seems perfectly suited to such dynamic changes though (and by that I mean in the ‘big’ sense, not the ‘awesomely brilliant’ sense). With all the new plugins and stuff it seems to be changing into more of a content management system than a blog platform – but the beauty is that it still does both, and more importantly, it does them with minimal effort from the ubergeek driving it

I’ve played around with Joomla a fair bit on another non-travel site and although its pretty powerful (even moreso than WP in my opinion) initially its also head explodingly confusing and quite time consuming when it comes to actually building a site from scratch.

The other good thing about WP is that even with just a tiny bit of HTML/CSS knowledge you can effectively tinker with the layout of an already established theme (and even chop and change bits with other themes) with ease. Just download a few themes into a sandbox site, pick out the best bits of each and cobble something together to give a unique look. It seems as though the folks who write the original themes do so in such a geek friendly manner that it allows chimps like me to get stuck in and effortlessly turn beauty into fugly. I love it! WordPress, we salute you!
So then Kirsty, what crazy theme are YOU going to go for?
N

But I do see Lea’s point on usability. When I first clicked on the links, I wasn’t even looking for the words. When I went back I tried to focus on the content and my eyes did feel kind of strained.

But here’s my take. A travel magazine is partly about the images. I like to see images of the places/people/things I might visit one day.

But apart from that, I think well chosen images help you scan a page and find what you’re looking for much more quickly. And on the Internet I wear my go-faster strips. I want speed!

So some nice, contextual images (contributed by readers perhaps) would keep me happy anyway.

Leigh

My only feedback would be this…one thing I personally find a little difficult is knowing where to look. There is sometimes so much going on that my eyes just don’t know where to go.

As I’m a regular reader and fan of both of these sites, I’ll persevere and keep looking…were I somebody new however, the sheer visual overload (as a visual person) might make me click away.

The psychology of choice is such that if you give somebody too much, they won’t make any choice and will go elsewhere – I think there’s a fine balance therefore in making sure that you give your visitors a simple and compelling experience when they come to your site without overwhelming them.