Entering SunPress Contest: Criticism?
Written by Stefan Vervoort on January 10, 2009This post is updated with new versions all the time.
I came across an interesting contest a couple days back and I decided to give it a go. First of all, I want to tell you what it’s all about.
The contest is hosted on Yoast, Joost de Valk’s SEO blog. It isn’t a SEO related contest though. The company behind the contest is SunShine, a travel organization running an awesome and creative affiliation program. They have developed a plugin for WordPress!
This plugin is called SunPress. SunPress allows you to run your own travel organization. Well, not really of course. You add the vacations from SunShine, sell them and you will make a nice profit.
So now you know some background information.
What’s the Contest about?
SunShine wants to add more functionality to SunPress. Are you a plugin developer? Develop a plugin to add more functionality. Are you a themer? Let’s build a theme.
Myself am a WordPress themer. That’s why I decided to give this little contest a try and start PS CS3 on my 7-year-old DELL PC. Oh, and the MacBookAir prize definitely helped dragging me in 
.
Check out the contest page for more information.
Some Criticism Please?
I am showing off version 0.1 of the design to receive some criticism. I want the design to became really good and that can be done with your help, so any criticism is appreciated.
Version 0.3
Version 0.2
Version 0.1
Low Quality to prevent stealing.
This article is written by:
Name: Stefan Vervoort
Description: My name is Stefan Vervoort, a 19-year-old webdesigner and blogger from the Netherlands. I write on DivitoDesign, WP TOY and on this personal blog.
That’s not too shabby!
Tips:
-The photos should have some type of border/frame.
-Your search box/icon are way to big IMO.
-”Check for availability” link should be a styles button
-Move search to the right more and add a ticker(deals) to the left.
These are just a few of my thoughts that would make it better. The design you have now is simple easy to use and straight to the point. I think that is key to any site design. Good job and good luck with the contest.
@DJ – Many thanks for your feedback! I will answer this feedback for my take on them.
- Border/frame around Photos: Correct, that’s one thing I forget
- I don’t think the search box is TOO large IMO. A search box in this kind of site is important: users would like to search for vacations and locations (when I browse travel sites I know I do).
- I will add some more style to the ”Check for availability” button.
- Maybe I can add the search box to the “left-sidebar”, under the “check for availability” box. And maybe add a “Deals” box up there.
I have to make sure it stays “simple” and not to cluttered. A clean and easy-on-the-eyes site is perfect for these kind of sites.
Anyway, thanks again for your feedback!
I agree about the searchbox now. Maybe it is best that it’s large and in charge. Are you going to be working on the design only? Or are you going to code this up to? If so, I’ve always wanted Travel sites to detect my location(IP BASED) and recommend local airports or docks for me.
I don’t know. The plan was to code it once I have a change of winning. Not going to waste a large amount of time learning how the plugin works, coding and optimizing the Wordpress theme if I have not a fair change of winning.
Anyway, that tip is a good one. I always want that too, so maybe it’s an idea to include that in the theme if I’m going to code.
I ‘m going to upload another version pretty soon.
Maybe put the search box first like I did here http://tinyurl.com/986pwo
I like the ticker there. I like to go to a site and bam, theres the deals, no searching, no hard to find information, it’s all there. I like this.
Hey! That looks even better, I will use that setup. Great you like it and really thanks for your feedback. Will update it soon again!
Sorry to say I have only just come across this after the closing date. Looks like a really promising theme.
Did you enter ?