Web design / Honolulu, HI
Start with the ʻokina
Before we choose a typeface for a Honolulu business, we check whether it has an ‘okina and the vowels with a kahakō. Plenty of popular web fonts don’t, and when a glyph is missing the browser either swaps in a different font for that one character or shows an empty box. “Waikīkī” with two mismatched letters in the middle looks careless, and “Kaka‘ako” with a straight apostrophe is simply wrong to anyone who grew up reading it.
Some organizations drop the marks online to avoid the problem. We’d rather fix it. That means picking type that covers the characters, testing it on the phones your customers actually carry, and making sure the content editor lets your staff type the ‘okina without copying it from somewhere else. It’s a small thing, and local readers notice it immediately. If you’re starting a new brand, the check belongs in the logo design stage, before anyone falls in love with a wordmark that can’t spell the street you’re on.
Kamaʻāina and visitors want different things
Most Honolulu businesses serve two audiences who barely overlap. Residents want hours, parking, specials and the kama‘āina rate. Visitors want to know where you are relative to their hotel, whether they need to book ahead and how to get there without a car. Trying to answer both on one crowded homepage usually serves neither.
A better pattern is a clear split early on: one path for people who live here, one for people who are visiting, each with its own short page. Restaurants feel this most, and our restaurant guide goes through menus, reservations and the visitor-heavy lunch rush. Photographers have a version of it too. A wedding or elopement photographer on O‘ahu is mostly selling to couples on the mainland who’ve never seen the beach in question, which our photographers and creatives guide goes into.
About kamaʻāina rates
Is it a bad idea to show kamaʻāina rates on the public site?
No. Many Honolulu businesses list them openly, and residents look for them. Say what counts as proof (a Hawaii ID, usually) and where the discount applies, so nobody has an awkward moment at the counter. If the rate is a big part of your local business, give it a short page of its own and link it from the resident path.
Town, country, Windward, Leeward
The City and County of Honolulu covers the whole island, so “Honolulu” on a website can mean Kaka‘ako, Hale‘iwa or anywhere in between. People here are more precise. They’ll say town or country, Windward or Leeward, and give directions mauka and makai rather than north and south. Someone in Kailua or Kāne‘ohe searches for Kailua or Kāne‘ohe. Someone in Kapolei or Mililani does the same.
If you serve the whole island, write a short page for each area you actually cover, and say honestly how often you get out there. A North Shore customer would rather know you come on Thursdays than be told you serve “all of O‘ahu.”
Hawaii time
Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight saving time, so the gap with the mainland changes twice a year. A booking widget that quietly assumes Pacific Time will put a 9 a.m. tour on a visitor’s calendar two or three hours off. We set every calendar and confirmation email to Hawaii time and label it, every time.
Our studio works remotely, without an office on O‘ahu, so we schedule calls in Hawaii time, around your opening hours rather than ours.
A Honolulu project usually pairs web design with a quick brand identity check, especially when the old logo was made before anyone tested it on a phone.