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Posted by Bernhard Sturm on 07/17/07 08:08
windandwaves wrote:
> 4. hotels often use flags to welcome people - no-one assumes that if
> you flag aint showing you are not welcome.
> 5. we can't add every flag, because the languages we use cover
> billions of people!
>
> This was my reasoning. How do you suggest we fix it, while keeping
> the nice look?
I would suggest placing a nice dummy-flag in the footer, and then refer
by text links to the languages, and not to the country: EN | FR | DE |
IT | ES
Native speakers usually know how their mother-tongue is being
internationally abbreviated. Referring to a country as a mean to switch
languages is not wise: in a globalised world a lot of people do no
longer speak their 'official' countries language, and in the case of
Switzerland: we have 4 official languages how would you treat this by
using flags, without forcing us poor Swiss to click on a foreign country
flag? :-)
> however, few present empirical evidence whether or not things work.
> Professionals look at these things very differently from "normal"
> people. For example the site discussed here is usually a favourite
> with "normal" people, although it breaks a lot of professional rules.
>
There are empirical works showing, that the normal user is not able to
grasp more than 5-7 different menu items at a time. You can optimise
this a bit by introducing a visual and semantic hierarchy on your
representation of the menus e.g. by using a bigger font size or a set
your typeface in bold... But the rule stays the same: not more than 5-7
main items.
>> - No immediate contact information. For a hotel I would expect this to
>> be the most important thing. As a future guest I want to know: where and
>> who can I contact you, as I want to book NOW. As your client I would
>> have insisted on this.
>
> Good point. Perhaps we should make the contact link bold or so? What
> we have done is to create several links in strategic places directly
> to the contact page.
>
I would recommend this. If your client wants to make serious money with
the site you should place a contact link on each page. It would be even
better to have the complete address in the footer or so, this indicates
to potential customers 'look, we are here, we do exist, and we want you
to call or contact us!'.
>
> Thanks a million for all your comments. That is just fantastic. Much
> appreciated. I hope I did not sound too "arrogant" - as Richard would
> put it. Thanks again!
>
not at all. I can see that you have a very professional attitude towards
your work, and that you are taking any critics serious. That will never
lead to an arrogant position :-)
cheers
bernhard
--
www.daszeichen.ch
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