There are mix emotions every time you finish a project. Glad that you’ve made the deadline for one. Anxious to hear your audience’s comments especially that of your client. Happy to see a lot of task/tickets checked on your project management application. Rushing to your account officer giving the go ahead to send the invoice (haha…)

Although in this clip the boys show a lot of that burst of emotions, but for me the feeling was very unsettling. Off course I get a tingle of excitement at the time of the launch. Knowing that this project maybe one of the biggest in my life so far, an odd feeling started to rush in.

It’s a kind of feeling you get after a long trip with your friends. You kinda glad its over but you definitely know you’re going to miss the journey. I’m going to miss those long technical meeting with the team and the client, those long hours and sleepless nights at the office trying to make the deadline. I’m going to miss roller-coaster ride, the ups and down, and all the chaos that comes with it.

But if you ask me to do it all over again, My answer will definitely be YES..

]]> http://definitelyworks.com/blog/teeboxclub-countdown-to-launch/feed 0 http://definitelyworks.com/blog/a-new-beginning http://definitelyworks.com/blog/a-new-beginning#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:30:55 +0000 admin http://definitelyworks.com/?p=350

“An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.”

That was a plot summary of one of John Travolta’s greatest masterpiece. Which is the dramatized version of what I felt this morning when I read my twitter timeline while I was stuck at traffic. The day begun as your typical “stayed-up-late-in-the-office-working-on-the-biggest-project-of-my-life-and-feeling-drowsy-the next-morning” kind of a day…right until I saw this tweet:

“Looking to develop some New Job Skills for ur Next Interview? Volunteer w/us & learn Social Media/Blogging Skills – http://bit.ly/a74fAP”

What’s the big deal right? Well, it’s a big deal for you too if it represents an opportunity to work at your dream job with the people that you admired and read about everyday for the last year or so.

It’s a big deal when the job combines two things you are most passionate about (Writing and the purple and gold). It’s a big thing if it means you get to share your love with a bunch of people you don’t know from all over the world.

It’s even a bigger deal if you’re excited and willing to go the distance, like writing this article, for a volunteer job that doesn’t even pay? and ultimately kick-start you to write again after a long period of absence.

I’m talking about this volunteer job opening at one of the first website I open everyday and spent countless time reading.

Thank you LakerNation for giving me a revelation that there is a perfect job in this world for people like me. A place where (hopefully) I can contribute my skills and share my passion.

Thanks for inspiring me to write again (which I vow to do weather I get the job or not)

Wish me luck…here goes nothing

When I first set on to write this article, I thought it is going to be hard choosing between endless selections of great Indonesian hotel websites. When I got started on my research, turns out it was even harder, but for all the wrong reasons.

It took hours upon hours of browsing through Indonesian hotel listings to come up with the nominees. Frankly, I’m a bit disappointed. It really baffles me that Indonesian hotels in general haven’t fully grasps the potential of their websites.

BestoftheWeb:IndoHotelWebsite

For me, a hotel’s website should be as important as their lobby. Both should be build by applying the same principal, which is “good first impression”. I don’t understand why hotels spent millions of dollars to build extravagant and one of a kind lobby but don’t even have the decency to spend thousands to build a great website. Like this one or this one (crappy and .

Having said that, a great hotel website (besides all the technical stuffs) should have:

1. A great design (with a design concept that inspired by the hotel’s design).
2. Great contents with tons of beautiful pictures of the hotel’s facilities (done by pros).
3. An online booking / reservation application.

Here are some that stand out from the rest:

1. Mulia Hotel, Jakarta

Mulia Hotel Website

This website is as good as it gets.  It has all the requirements above and then some. Design great, pictures extra great, booking application equally great! Every other self-respected hotel should have a website like this and not one of those “look-at-me-i-am-a-part-of-a-global-brand-of-hotels” websites. Don’t get me wrong, big brands like Hiltons, Hyatts, and others absolutely set the highest standard in the quality of services and facilities. But in terms of building their online presence, they are light years behind Mulia Hotel’s website.

2. Ayana Resort and Spa, Bali

Ayana resort Website

If there is anything I love more than a great website is a great website with a lot of white spaces. White-spaces websites are now dangerously becoming a lost art in modern web design. Everyone seem to fall in love with patterns and illustrations as background. It is good to see that someone out there still have the balls to design one, especially as good as this one. This website can be described in three words… simple, elegant, informative. Great Job!

3. Jimbaran Puri Resort and Ubud Hanging Gardens

Ubud Hanging Garden Website

Jimbaran Puri website

Number 3 in my list is more of a tie. Both are twin websites developed by the Orient Express group. Now, these are not micro-sites, they are separate individual site using the same templates.  It’s a unique concept, and it works! Not just for these 2 sites, they use basically one template for dozens of websites under the orient express group. The best thing about the websites is that they’ve invest a high level of efforts on each of the site. I don’t usually endorse a full page animation website because of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) factor, but this website is very good. It deserve a comfort spot at number 3 on my list.

4. Kempinski Hotel, Jakarta

This website is an anomaly. It is part of the global Kempinski hotel website, which as I mention earlier usually crappy and uninspired. Yet they’ve managed to put a lot of efforts into every individual hotel micro-sites. The design is very modern, use black background for the most part but doesn’t give a dark look whatsoever. The pictures selections really stand out. I like the fact that the booking application is right there in every page so audiences can easily book a room. That is the main purpose of the website, to get people to actually come to the hotel.

5. Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel, Bali

Discovery Kartika website

Open the website, get a scotch tape, stick it on your monitor exactly where the logo is, and you got yourself a good hotel website (after all, what’s in a logo right? Wrong! ). Beside the logo from the late 20’s, this website has all the requirements of a great website. The content, above all, is what stand out the most for me. Well-planned content architecture makes it easier for audiences to get information. The design is very simple. The sandy-beach look could be more enhanced to get more of a beach feel, but overall it’s good. From a more technical stand point, this website gets plus points for fast access and good usability.



This is my first post of “Best of the web”. A series of articles about the best website in Indonesia and in the world in each of the category or their respective fields. These website will be reviewed based on the design, functionality, usability, content, etc.

To celebrate this end of the year holiday season it is appropriate to start this series with the travel industry websites. This article features some of the best Tour & Travel Services, Hotels & Accommodations, and Travel Directories in Indonesia and also a couple of pointers about building your own Travel related websites.

Best of the web: Indonesian Travel Website

Because there are so many different things to write about , I decide to split this into 4 categories each on a separate article:

1. The best travel directories and tour/travel agent & services websites
2. The best hotels and accommodations websites
3. The best travel destinations websites
4. Design Tips: Travel Websites

Ok, lets get right to it, These are some of the best out there..

The Best Travel Directories and Tour/Travel Agents & Services

1. The new Visit Indonesia (Official Tourism website of Indonesia)

Visit Indonesia Website

There is no better way to start things off with the Indonesian national tourism website.  This website suppose to be the frontline of the whole Travel Industry. It has gone a major reconstruction in 2009 and the result is way better than the last. It is not perfect by any means and compared with Indonesia neighbor’s official tourism website (like this one or this one), It still got a lot of catching up to do. And to think that Tourism is a big industry in Indonesia you got to wonder why the government doesn’t put more attention in the matter.

Design, functions, usability is good, hats off to the developer (Anyone have any info who build this?). The Content? Not so much, I wonder why the content rotator on the main page doesn’t lead to an article. And there are a lot of broken links. This shows a lack of effort in the content department. But overall I can say that this is a major improvement.

2. WhyGo Indonesia

WhyGo Indonesia Website

This is a good website that is part of the WhyGo brand of travel websites. Apart from the obvious good and simple layout, the contents is what makes this website stand out. I love the content architecture, which took a more magazine blog approach rather than a cluttered one. This makes the site user-friendlier in terms of reading the contents.

But the best part of this website is the powerful travel search engine that is connected to the Bootsnall network. If you are traveling to Indonesia from abroad, then this website is very helpful in finding the best airfare deals and accommodations (hotel or hostel).

3. Liburan.info

Liburan.info website

The self-proclaimed “the biggest travel information portal in Indonesia” may well on its way to becoming exactly just that. Backed up by Transpot, a sister site, which features a comprehensive database of all the traveling info, you will have a walk in the park in finding information from hotel rates to car rental. And based on the contents alone, this website deserve to be put in the top 3.

4. Yogyes

Yogyes Website

I usually hate website that use a left column menu and a font size that will make your eyes drowsy. But aside to the “old school” layout, this website is more than good, It is great. If you are planning to travel to Yogyakarta, you don’t want to miss this website.

I have two reasons why this website stands out: comprehensive information and good pictures, or to put it in web terms, great content. They’ve really put a serious effort in providing good visualization for almost every articles and directories. It is exactly what travelers are looking for. They’ve nailed it.

5. Panen Tour

Panen Tour Website

Finally, a travel agent website that is not posing as a travel portal/directories. I like the straight-forwardness of its layout, simple but still in line with the brand. The content architecture is good, makes it easy to find everything. The content is not bad, could be better. The little animation on the header is an icing on the cake, but not too much.

Overall, I like it very much. Simplicity with class..

But still, every single one of the websites above is still way behind when compared to some of the best in the world. Here are, in my opinion, the cream of the crop:

Lonely Planet

Visit Sweden

Gorp.com

Frommers.com

Zonder.com

In the web development business as well as in any other, the initial inputs from client is very important in deciding the directions of the entire project. It means life and death in deciding weather or not you will come up with on-the-mark solution, the right-look design, the right web applications, and so on.

The more complete the information of their needs, their problems, their business, means the faster you can come up with the concept and the estimates. And off course, the less time you should invest in finding those missing puzzle elsewhere (by doing your own research).

But sometimes there are a few things your clients wont tell you or reluctant to tell you and most of the time it is the information you regard as the most precious. If client interview is a treasure map, this information is often the x mark. From my experience, these are some of those x marks:

image by

1. Budget

This comes high in the ranks because ultimately this is what matters the most. Although some client will reveal their budget upfront, I find that most clients (especially Indonesian clients) wont. They will rather negotiate your proposed cost estimates (by scratching off your services one by one) to find out how much you’re willing to lower your rates.

For us, revealing the budget from the start will make the initiation process simpler, faster, and fairer for both the client and us. The budget will be set as a parameter of how far goes our level of services.

2. Goals

You will find that most clients are not goal oriented when it comes to the website they are about to build. In many cases, the only goal in the mind of your client is only to have a website. While this may give you less pressure in your work, but if you are trying to build the best possible website, its not going to work.

The client’s goals are exact directions of where the projects suppose to be heading. Without it, you are as good as lost. It can often become restrictions, boundaries for you not to put too much efforts in part of the project that will not contribute to the end result they are looking for. That’s why I always ask for my client’s goal in the most clear, vivid, and measurable way as possible.

3. Client’s Competitors

I am a firm believer that no matter what business you are in, you should always keep (at least) one eye on the competitors. Client often reluctant to tell you which competitor to compare and weather or not the competitor’s website have something good to explore.

Just like everyone else, your client do spend a lot of time staring at their competitor’s brand new website, don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no shame about that. It is probably the main reason their calling you to have their website upgraded.

Knowing what the competitors are doing is really important when you are trying to differentiate your self from the pack. Standing out is always a big plus.

4. “Real” Problems

It is a human thing really, to (unconsciously) hide the real problem. For instance, a client tell you that the current website’s CMS is too complicated and not user friendly. While that maybe what their staff are telling their boss, the real problem is that the company really don’t have the manpower and the time to update the contents. All their staffs already have a high workload doing something else. So with this condition, no matter what CMS you propose, they will always have problems.

It is very important to try to look behind the curtain. If you are trying to fix a “false” problem, you will always end up giving a “false” solution.

5. You having a competition

Competition is good. It keeps you motivated. Keeps you from being trap in mediocrity. But sometimes clients tend to be discreet about telling you that you are having a competition for the same project with other company or freelancer until it was already too late in the game.

For me, it is only fair that I am informed that the project is actually a tender up front. Then I can give a more appropriate effort according to the phases of the tender.

After few months of delays, busy working on projects and procrastination at last we publish our very first blog post. Hooray! And now, a little introduction of what this blog is all about:

This blog is about sharing our experiences, knowledge, tricks, tips, tools, plugin, links, inspiration, freebies and a whole other stuff to you.

So, just be patient and subscribe to that Feed icon on the header in the mean time. See you on the next posts