Communication

Group: 6
Student names: Arnault Droz-dit-Busset, Guillaume Philibert, Conail Stewart
Date: May 30th 2007


 

Legibility (weight: 16.5/40)

Identify at least three labels which do not make sense.

1.        Offres du jour

In French, it is inconsistent with the style of language used on the rest of the site. It might be more acceptable if a cosmopolitan audience is guaranteed.

2.       plan du site

In French, as above.

3.       Shared package

Ambiguous meaning. It is not clear what the meaning of 'shared' is. Most likely that a number of friends travel together, but it could also imply that customers share there accommodation etc with others.

How would you rephrase them?  

1.        Today's Offers

Simple translation from French.

2.       Sitemap

Lieteral translation from French reads: ‘site plan’, however we use the word ‘sitemap’ instead because it has greater specificity.

3.       Group Trip

We rephrase to ‘group trip’ because the word ‘group’ more ably implies that the customer would be travelling with a group, rather than merely ‘sharing’ costs/resources, and we use the word ‘trip’ to maintain lexical consistency. 

 

Communication consistency (weight: 16.5/40)

Identify at least three inconsistencies in the use of the language.

1.        See last-minute vacations

Vacations and trips are both assumed to refer the same kind of product offering.  Also the capitalisation of titles throughout the page is not consistent.

2.       El Yunque rain forest and Luquillo BeachSail and Snorkel – Uninhabited Island of IcacosRountrip flight to San Juan Suggested stay: 5-7 days

Doesn't follow the format of other trip descriptions and introduces special features of the package, without drawing attention to them visually, or separating them distinctly from the package description.

3.       Sweep someone off their feet

Doesn’t appear to be a section heading, which makes this content box inconsistent to other trip listings.

Explain your solutions to resolve these consistency issues.  

1.        Last Minute Trips

We changed the word ‘vacation’ to trips so that it is clear that there is no difference between them – they both refer to the same product offering.  We consolidated the language to use 'trips' as the de-facto term to describe excursions. This resolves the inconsistent use and avoids using the word vacation which is not in common use in significant dialects of English.

2.       Accommodation at the El Conquistador Resort and Golden Door Spa

Visit the El Yunque Rain Forest and Luquillo Beach. Sail and Snorkel on the uninhabited island of Icacos.

Includes round trip flight to San Juan.

Our suggested stay: 5-7 days

We restructured the description of the "El Yunque" firstly to match the style of the other trips, but also to shorten the sentence length, introduce correct grammar and spelling and emphasis key points of the proposition.

3.       Sweep Someone Off Their Feet

 

Typography (weight: 7/40)

Give some arguments for what might be problematic with the typography?

 We have chosen not to classify the text colour as a typographical problem, though it sometimes impairs readability. We feel this should instead be tackled at a more abstract, holistic level as in our first exercise.

In terms of font consistency, we feel that the layout is sufficient. Only two faces are used, and one only for the site title and so could be considered a wordmark.

However, there is a wide variety of weights and styles in use which we find distracting and lends to an unprofessional image.

The typography is not homogeneous.  Some of the text hasn't the same size or font e.g. "Login" and "Password".

There are some spelling errors, such as "Package tript" instead of "Package trips" and "Recommandations” instead of "Recommendations".

Some are underlined contrary to others, like "California : Stay for $69" for example.

We have inconsistent capitalisation, e.g. "romantic cruises" or "home" or even "Born To TRavel" which has a "R" instead of a "r".

What would you do differently?

 We would standardise font sizes, styles and weights across the whole site.  Specifically, we would set defined styles for each kind of content e.g. paragraph, emphasised  paragraph, section heading (with multiple levels), and navigation links.

We feel that it is worthwhile to break our font selection scheme for the site title in order to create a sufficiently memorable title.  We assume that the site header height is fixed (because we don’t want to change the layout), so in order to make it stand out we use a non-standard, unusual (but legible) font to make up for our inability to increase the font size signifcantly.

Problems/Solutions in Detail:

Current

New

Category

Description

Severity (1-5)

Born To TRavel

Born To Travel

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation, High Priority

4

Menu

 

 

 

 

Offres du jour

Today’s Offers

Typography, Language Inconsistency,

Nonsensical

Too Big, Capitalisation,

High Priority

4

Package tript

Package Trips

Language Inconsistency,

Nonsensical

Capitalisation, Spelling Error

2

Search

 

Typography

inconsistent style

 

Shared package

???

Nonsensical

 

5

Create package

Create Package

Typography

Capitalisation

1

Recommandations

Recommendations

Typography, Nonsensical

inconsistent style, Spelling Error

2

My account/ create new

My Account

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation

3

My account/ create new

Create New Account

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation

3

Login

 

Typography

Different font/size

1

Password

 

Typography

Different font/size

1

OK

Go

 

 

1

California: Stay from $69

California: Stay from $69

Typography, Language Inconsistency

Line runs out

1

Or save even more : Book flight + hotel together for a 3-night package from $414

Save even more : Book a Flight + Hotel   3-night package from $414

Nonsensical

 

2

Puerto Rico: Island adventure awaits

Puerto Rico: Island Adventure Awaits

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation

1

Accommodations at El Conquistador Resort and Golden Door Spa ««««

Accommodation at the El Conquistador Resort and Golden Door Spa

««««

Nonsensical

 

1

El Yunque rain forest and Luquillo BeachSail and Snorkel – Uninhabited Island of IcacosRountrip flight to San Juan Suggested stay: 5-7 days

Visit the El Yunque Rain Forest and Luquillo Beach.  Sail and Snorkel on the uninhabited island of Icacos.

 

Includes roundtrip flight to San Juan

 

Our suggested stay: 5-7 days

Nonsensical

Spelling Error, Grammar

2

Sweep someone off their feet

Sweep Someone Off Their Feet

Typography, Language Inconsistency

Not red or bold, inconsistent style,

Capitalisation

4

Imagine it---the two of you, a beautiful new place *or an old favorite(, and plenty of time to do ... whatever you please.

 

Pure Cheese,

Nonsensical

*?

4

romantic cruises

Romantic Cruises

Typography, Language Inconsistency

Underline blue, inconsistent style,

Capitalisation

1

Last-minute vacations

Last Minute Trips

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation

1

Get away for less, this weekend or next:  Find great low rates for your flight+hotel trip.

Get away this weekend or next. 

Find great, reduced rates for your Flight + Hotel trip.

Nonsensical

 

2

See last-minute vacations

See Last Minute Trips

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation

1

home

Home

Typography, Language Inconsistency

Inconsistent style to other footer links, high priority

3

plan du site

Sitemap

Language Inconsistency,

Nonsensical

Capitalisation, Spelling Error, high priority

4

contact

Contact

Language Inconsistency

Capitalisation, high priority

2

Revised Image

 

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