Would you be able to look at the following site and let me know what you think

 

http://www.debbiesvillas.co.uk

 

Being more of a developer than a designer and having spent so much time looking at it now not sure how it looks?

 

Thanks

It's very fast, tidy and functional. But it looks a little plain and old-fashioned, when compared to some of the really good holiday accommodation sites around.

 

(does a quick Google...)

 

I take it back. Most of the entries on page 1 for "holiday villas in florida" look terrible! (though this one isn't bad - but Spain not Florida I think)

 

But, I think you could make it look better by:

 

1. Reducing the text sizes very slightly

 

2. Making the buttons look more like buttons (maybe a colour gradient and/or shadow)

 

3. Reducing the number of borders (everything has a line around it).

It's a simple site that does it's job, but I echo what Andy said - it's far too simple and old fashioned. There are a couple of things that bug me about it:

 

The blue gradient in the background is very simple, if you added some texture to it, or a little difference then it would make it better. It's not subtle enough, and remember - less is more. When you have a harsh gradient like that, rather than it looking good, it tends to put a lot of emphasis on the background, rather than content. What you want is a gradient that isn't noticable without having a proper look at the site, take 9web, for example, the gradient at the top isn't something that you'd immediately look at, but upon further inspection you can see it's a gradient, if the site didn't have that gradient, it'd look too flat and plain.

 

This is something that always bugs me a little, and it probably shouldn't, but the footer of your site touches the edge of the browser, you should always do it so there's a gap the same height as the one above the header of your site, it makes the design look complete, and shows a designer with an eye to detail.

 

The navigation on your site is a little too simple, and rather than looking like a holiday site, it looks like something that would appear on a personal website, there should be some more emphasis on navigation, there are some really interesting things that can be done with a combination of graphics and css now-a-days, so you should try and be as creative as possible with navigation where you can.

 

The way the formatting of the content is could also be improved, everything seems a little squashed, tight and 'boxy' (not an adjective I know, let alone a real word, but the only word I could think of). Everything has a line around it, and it all looks very simple, far too simple for what this site is doing. The only way you could ever change this is by adding something more graphical to the site, whether it's buttons, gradients, backgrounds etc, you should definitely make it a bit more elegant, and edge away from the simplicity of it at the moment.

I like it - sure it doesn't look like many other glitzy examples but the proof of the pudding will come if it does the job. In fact I'd far sooner see a site like your than be bombabrded with pointless flash and huge logos.

 

I too think the font size could be notched down a little, probably only by 0.1em or so but that would make a big difference.

 

The home page quicksearch needs a better title methinks - something like "Check availability"

 

Villa detail page

- the thumbnails need to be clickable to see bigger versions

- the PDF link seems a little out of place, suggest putting it after the villa features list or by the check availability link so it goes into the document flow

Can definitely tell it's a developer's site!

 

You don't need to border everything. For the titles try using a different style font, maybe a serif. As said before, reduce text size and set a line-height. How about adding a JQuery lightbox to enlarge the pics when you click on them? Instead of the background gradient, how about a full-page sized pic of a lovely villa?