Monoloco needs a new and outstanding website design

Monoloco

We are a travel magazine and travel planning website (think National Geographic or CNN GO meets Gogobot). Also in the future we would like to go beyond web (travel inspired coffee shop for travellers to meet up and talk, custom made travel expeditions - something like National Geographic Expeditions etc)

NOTE: Our website will be in polish language (we will translate the design we choose into polish after the contest ends) so all the fonts you use have to support that.

http://www.monoloco.pl

These are some websites we like:

http://www.cnngo.com
http://travel.nationalgeographic.co…-magazine/
http://travel.nationalgeographic.co…avTravHome
http://photography.nationalgeograph…NavPhoHome
http://www.gogobot.com/london
http://globetrooper.com/
http://www.life.com
http://www.nationalgeographicexpedi…s.com/home
http://www.cntraveller.com/
http://traveldk.com/

also these are nice:

http://www.travelandleisure.com/
http://iwannagothere.com/
http://www.visitnorway.com/en/?WT.m…tourist_no
http://www.andbeyondafrica.com/luxu…masai_mara
http://www.cntraveller.com/
http://www.airbnb.com/
http://www.qwiki.com/

NOTE: It's good to be inspired be these websites but If we see that your design is a OBVIOUS COPY (more then an inspiration) of any of the websites from the list above it will be removed from our contest.

See attached mockups file. All the pages have to include all the elements from the mockups but they can look different from what you can see in there or in other words you dont have to design the pages exactly how you see them on the mockups. Mockups are just to show you what should be included on the page and what we think it should look like but if you have better UI ideas (we are not UI experts!!!) you are more than welcome to implement them.

So this is what is included in our mockups file:

1) Home Page:

a) Top panel (logo, search, get advice etc) - background should be dark (black or something, or dark brown might work as well but not sure)

b) Map button this will be a continent/country selector - we like the implementation from http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/ (top right corner) this could be named differently.

c) Main menu – we like menus from life.com and cnngo.com with this little color line (different color for each menu item). Do something similar or come up with more creative idea (with use of colors for menu items, but don’t make a rainbow from our menu)

Monoloco Cafe and Monoloco Go could have an icon

d) Europe, Asia Americas etc links - we were thinking about another country selector but since this will be same as b) we might thing about some other usage for this not sure yet

e) Best trips ideas - this will be section where we will show our best custom made local or more global trip itineraries.
Local could look like this - start in point x located next to cafe y in village z, walk 10 km, first interesting thing to see is this and that etc, global will be like day 1) Bangkok, day 2) Kuala Lumpur day 3) Singapore etc. There will be a map for each and list of interesting things to see on the way. So this box should just show the trip photo and tile or description and link to see more or something.

f) Adrenalin Rush (couldn’t think of a better name in English) - similar to trip ideas. Will show interesting things to do while travelling that will make you think twice before doing them (longest bungee jumping in New Zealand etc)

g) Get your own travel journal – this is a login, sign in box with a twist. Don’t do it as it looks in the mockup cos we don’t like it. Think of something else (look at http://globetrooper.com/ we like narrows and hand writing descriptions – you can replace this cloud from our mockup with something like that but not sure if it will look good, any other more creative ideas more than welcome, don’t use map background there. In our mockup it represents some graphic but not necessary a map.) Btw it’s a login to travel journal (which will be a user profile page as well) so maybe something to represent that.

h) Big slider - this is the place where we will be showing our best articles etc. As you can see it’s a big picture with article title on top of it. It should have narrows (only visible when you hover over it) and dots representing pages. See http://www.cnngo.com

i) Featured articles – nothing much to say – picture, article title + first 20-30 words and read more link + category (interview, photography, adventure etc, there will be more categories but not sure about official names for now)

j) Eat, drink, shop, stay – don’t use colors cos it looks same as on cnngo.com be creative here come up with your ideas. Icons for each category would be nice. Next to the category name you can add see all link or something.

k) Next Stop: Since we are a small startup we won’t be able to start with lots of content for all countries (in our travel guide) so each week will pick few countries and add more content for it (like attractions etc) so this box is there to inform our users what we will be adding next. Nice interesting design for this box will be appreciated. Something that stands out.

l) Events, Festivals, Don’t miss – we want to show best articles from these sections of our website (sections we show here could change later).

m) Take me there – pictures showing interesting places from interesting perspective when clicked will show big version with short description of the place.

n) Adventures – articles from section adventures (this will be one of our main sections like photography etc – see main menu) where we will be publishing stuff about trekking, diving, rafting, gear reviews etc. On the home page will show best articles from that section.

o) Facebook – you know – can look different

p) Write for us – this is and info box for our users telling them that if they want they can write for us (if they are any good). There will be a link to a contact form.

2) Travel Journal - on this page user will be able to add all the countries, cities and places he or she visited. On the top of the page you can see user information box with picture, name, location, website and some about info. This should be paged (other pages will contain more information, some user profile settings, password change etc). Also this section should be collapsible and when collapsed it should only show user name, location and website.

In the top corner there is an icon representing user type (there will be two types of users)

3) Trip (trip_recommendations_tab and trip_plan_tab) - this page shows information about user's trip including all the places user wants to visit, recommendations from other users erc. There are 2 tabs: recommendations and trip plan.

4) Travel Guide Overview- this is an overview page of our travel guide with information about selected country or city, pictures, user recommendations etc

5) Travel Guide - Things To Do - this page shows all the attractions from the selected country or city

NOTE: Our website will be in polish language (we will translate the design we choose into polish after the contest ends) so all the fonts you use have to support that.
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Target audience: age 25-45, with university degree and income above average, people who enjoy travelling and everything about it (we would like to attract all travellers but would be leaning more towards backpackers).

We are looking for exceptional, original and professional design. Just be creative, think outside the box and design a website that could potentially win a design award.

Would like our website to be light, clean, easy to use and beautiful.

NOTE: Our website will be in polish language (we will translate the design we choose into polish after the contest ends) so all the fonts you use have to support that.