Everyone needs a little luxury in their life whether it’s staying at a luxury hotel for a weekend or just watching HGTV (which, by the way, can get really addicting). Luxury is extravagant, inspiring, elegant, and tasteful. If you’ve ever stayed in a luxury hotel, you know what I’m talking about. But how do you convey the experience of luxury without actually being there? The Gramercy Park Hotel in New York does this beautifully with their website, which is why this week, gramercyparkhotel.com is the Wednesday Website We Love.
GPH’s use of beautiful, high-quality photography within its full-width layout immediately grabs your attention. As you begin to scroll, the page appears to animated thanks to the use of HTML5 and JavaScript. There’s also animated arrows telling you to scroll in case the user doesn’t realize the page is scrollable. This shows their awareness of user experience which is crucial when building a website.
In addition to the travelling menu, there’s also a unique “chapter” navigation at the bottom of the homepage that gives you a taste of each facet the hotel has to offer. On every page throughout the site, you see a pull-out, travelling reservation tab at the right of your screen. This user-friendly feature makes booking a reservation super easy and convenient. As with every site we review on Wednesdays, gramercyparkhotel.com’s mobile site is easy to navigate and still visually stunning.
The hotel’s decor was designed by oscar-nominated director and artist, Julian Schnabel. Naturally, it’s important for their website to live up to this standard. From their font and color choices to their background patterns, the design of gramercyparkhotel.com was carefully crafted to embody their brand. There’s also an elegant, static diamond hatch pattern overlaying the homepage that subtly gives the impression of luxury. In addition to being high-end, GPH is also known for its creativity and art collection. You can see this artistic creativity in the scrollable, animated signatures and the interactive color slider on the homepage.
Overall, the creative web design shines and gives the user an interactive, awe-inspiring experience. This is truly a website that lives up to the greatness of its product.
