A strange thing made my day. It happened when I went to the Český Krumlov website as I occasionally do when I want to look up something in connection with the town.
Český Krumlov is one of the most visited Czech Republic destinations. Its entire historical center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the town is talked about and written about in travel guides, its wealth is closely linked to tourism, the city tourist information center is one of the best in the country, yet the official website through which Český Krumlov has presented itself to the world looked as if it was trying to compete in a bad web design contest. Whenever www.ckrumlov.cz would appear on my screen, I’d wonder in astonishment: Don’t they get it? Don’t they see how painfully outdated the design is? How made-for-free-in-1995 the site looks? Are they never going to redesign it?!? Even the little village where I grew up has a website that looks far better than this!
Today I was about to email the www.ckrumlov.cz link to someone abroad, with embarassment and explanations that this is really not how Czech websites typically look. Just as I typed the URL into the browser and hit Enter, I gasped with excitement. There it was! A beautiful, perfectly presentable, readable site with oh-so-normal navigation was smiling at me in shades of yellow and inviting me to click around.
Welcome online, Český Krumlov! Here’s a toast to whoever finally got it!
ckrumlov.cz before:
and after (the new version went up on June 1, 2006):
So nice to discover your blog today! I have happily visited Prague 4 times now and once made it to Cesky Krumlov. Quite envious you are living in one of my most beloved spots!
oh, my goodness… what was before made me speachless for a moment…lol or may be it was special minimalist design and we just don’t understood it? hehehe
That’s all nice and dandy, but look at the Cesky Krumlov homepage URL. It ends with: “kaktualita.xml” not very inviting – I wouldn’t recommend anything that begins with “kak” in Czech.