Advice on website flow and feel

Question

Im building a website related to a Zoo http://funjack.azurewebsites.net/ All the elements that are on the page needs to be there, but something just doesn't "feel" right. I am trying to achieve something like http://www.philadelphiazoo.org/

any advice would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

There is a huge gap between what you have and where you want to be so that's not an easy question. You have good photos to work with so that's great.

A couple of points (for starters!)

• Make sure everything is legible (logo, social media buttons have problems currently)
• Make sure the space is well occupied (text column too wide, facebook feed sitting in half the page...those would be better if side-by-side)
• Text should be sized in a way that makes it guide the eye, depending on the importance of the different elements (think hierarchy)
• The current typography makes the site look unexpressive

Things to strive for to bring your site closer to end result you want:

• Layering of elements, use subtle shadows to make things look like they stick out
• Interactions with mouse to show the user what is happening or going to happen
• Define a global palette and then use it to color code some sections

Answer 2

Boths webpages have distracting elements that aren't essential to the enterprise (zoo). The focal point should be the animals first then the company second. Reason for that is to deliver a message that the zoo puts the welfare of the animals first... without having to tell that in black and white. To do that, you have to make your website as simple as possible.

At least http://funjack.azurewebsites.net is a responsive website. That's a very big plus and very good start. Also start by changing the domain name.

I'll give 2 zoo website samples as an initial reference.

http://www.nashvillezoo.org http://reidparkzoo.org