| August's WETA Award goes to... |
| Black Cat Group |
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This site creates a strong first impression with its striking black background and nicely rendered, scrollover navigation panel.
A growing number of sites entered into the WETA Awards provide a full version in an alternative language such as Japanese or, in the case of Black Cat, German. This must surely increase the site's legibility to international visitors. Perhaps even more important, is the clarity of information. With easy navigation (text based as well as scrollover images) and concise copy, most visitors will find the site easy to follow even if English or German is their second language. A good example is the pop-up map which, as well as providing a regional map, street map and, map showing Akaroa in relation to the whole country, provides driving times, shuttle information and directions. All within a small pop-up window! Other pluses include a trade section offering product manuals, brochures, posters and images on CD-Rom to the travel trade and, a newsletter registration page, enabling subscription to a free newsletter. It was hard to criticise the site. Sometimes the white text on black backgrounds could get a bit tedious, especially in the wordier sections such as "Events and News". And really, prices quoted on the site should have mentioned the currency was in $NZ but, these are small issues considering how much of the site is spot on. As one judge put it "Nicely done. It really makes you want to go!" |