Mo wrote a post about it on his travel blog…you can read it here. As Mo pointed out, the biggest difference of this site is the “web 2.0 inspired” approach, especially their navigation (which is based on tag clouds). Here’s a screenshot of the main navigation:

This is most interesting to me is that they do not “prescribe” a navigation path for users by determining the site’s architecture and navigation. Rather they rely on what they term as “editor’s picks” (content chosen by VisitFlorida) and what users search for on the website. And although there is general industry concern about the usability of tag clouds with consumers, the folks at VisitFlorida found through user testing that with some label changes and a very effective search interface, they actually respond very well to it.

The site features all of the things that a Web/Travel 2.0 site should have:

• User-submitted photos and videos
• User-submitted trips
• User Reviews
• 10 “Florida Experts” who are contributing content regularly for the website
• Content tagging

Its the content tagging that powers the site search, and ultimately the tag cloud as well. I absolutely love how outright they have been with their use of Web 2.0-based content and tools.

The downside of this site though is the lack of good editorial content and rich imagery. Its almost as though the site relies far too much on user-generated content, and not enough on solid editorial or factual content. Nonetheless, way to go Florida for being daring enough to do this.

Don’t forget to read Mo’s interview with Florida’s CA Clark and his thoughts on the site too.
http://traveltrendreport.blogspot.com/2007/12/case-study-conversation-with.html

But first, I’m going to back up to our first leisure stop of our trip in Chicago, where we visited Nick’s Pizza in between flights. Nick’s Pizza is not your ordinary pizza place. With only two physical restaurants and after being in business for less than 10 years, Nick’s Pizza is one of those places where every employee absolutely loves to work there. And it shows. Their culture is one of pride, empowerment in helping make the company great, and one of giving generously back to the community. Just outside their entrance is this sign:

The strangest part is that this place turns out upwards of 3,000 pizzas every Friday night. And every person who works there will tell you how much they love it. These people are the culture of Nick’s, but that came first from Nick himself, who created a place that carried meaning for anyone who worked there. That meaning is one of making a difference. Every night, all the employees give feedback about what went well and what can be improved for the next night. And that difference has made over $9 million in sales per year. And as a company, their culture is one of pride for their work and the experience they provide to every Nick’s customer. (for more on their incredible story, read their Newsweek story from 2005.)

When we arrived in India after 27 hours of actual travel. After a few hours sleep, we met our good friends at ISHIR. Here, over just the first day we learned something very incredible about the Indian people. They value strong work ethic and strong personal relationships beyond anything you can imagine. Their desire to do well by others coupled with an intense drive for excellence in work makes for a very productive, emerging country. So productive that in New Delhi alone there are over 2,000 IT/technology-based outsourcing companies. 40% of Microsoft’s employees worldwide work in India. Cisco and IBM have over 70,000 employees each, and that is not uncommon.

Beyond just their work, they are amazing people as well. People who have strong family values, strong relationships with one another, and a strong sense of community. Even in a hierarchical society, those who do well financially are only concerned with meeting their basic financial needs. Beyond that, they contribute their time, energy and money to others less fortunate.

Indian people who are more well off not only own cars, they hire personal drivers. The roads here are the craziest experience you’ll ever see:

So far, we’ve been both rear ended in traffic and have seen a guy on a scooter get broadsided by a car. He wasn’t hurt, nor were we in our accident since nobody travels faster than 20 mph. But its still a harrowing experience. Traffic is like absolute chaos, but there is an order to it that is indescribable. And I’m happy to be in the back seat looking out than in the driver’s seat.

So much to say, so much to explain, but nothing in words can describe what its like to actually be here. And more than anything, we are seeing that culture is the embodiment of the collective values of people, whether that is a company, a country, or even just a few people making pizzas. What culture does your company promote?

For more pictures from our trip, visit http://picasaweb.google.com/TeamOpus/IndiaDay1

So many good things to point out here on HawaiianAir.com, but I’ll just point out the ones I feel are the most important:

• Destination photography – novel idea folks…Delta.com did this a couple years ago. Why show a photo of a jet, which is quite possibly the worst part of your actual vacation itself?
• Simplified information display and navigation throughout the whole website.
• Minimized number of mouse clicks and page refreshes to interact with the interface. This is actually huge, because nothing is more frustrating than the unnecessary page refresh.
• Great use of client-side/DHTML interface interactions.
• Intelligent and easy-to-use calendar selector for choosing your dates. Seriously, I think airline websites have the worst calendar selectors of any site out there.
• A Trip Planner section of the website (licensed from HomeAndAbroad.com).
• A useful FAQ section (and FAQs integrated throughout the website).
• A nearly standards-compliant website – lighter page weight, which means faster page download.
• A “Whats New” page that explains all of the new features of the site

Big kudos to Hawaiian Airlines, Frog Design, and all others involved in this refresh.