Designer: Mandy Barrett

It may be challenging to design a website for a business known to recharge its customers, but it’s possible to generate excitement on a site without clutter and confusion. Janice DiMaggio, creative director of JDS Worldwide, turned to DG for help in redesigning the website for client Club Getaway, which offers all-inclusive weekend adventures. “The current design is old,” she says. “Club Getaway is totally unique and the site needs to convey that. It doesn’t generate a buzz.”

Part of the reason the site doesn’t represent the adventurous nature of the company is that it’s hard to navigate, and its use of colors is confusing. “There were a couple of design problems that struck me right away,” notes designer Mandy Barrett. “I don’t like the way they use menus—it’s difficult to tell what connects with what. Secondly, there’s no cohesive color palette. The web allows for full color, but that doesn’t mean your website should use them all.”

Barrett first set out to make the navigation easier. By including a pull-out menu that runs to the side rather than the top, she was able to line up a secondary menu with the user’s primary selection. This will help visitors recognize where they are. The “In the News” section of Club Getaway’s site was messy, so instead of listing every notable quote, Barrett created a menu in which the user can select the name of a publication, and its quote pops up to the right. “This should significantly decrease clutter on the page,” says the designer. She used the same technique for the photos page.

“Photos can convey full color, while a color palette evokes a feeling,” notes Barrett. She chose lime green as the site’s main color because it evokes the hip feeling of the company, whose target audience is age 25 to 40. Secondary colors include a complementary mint shade, blue (representing water sports), and brown (representing land activities).

Barrett selected fun fonts with clean lines— RilloHeavy for headlines and Volkswagen Light for copy and menus. She also updated Club Getaway’s logo. “It was so childish before,” she notes. “They needed something clean and simple.”