Doing business in Malaysia can be quite a laid back experience. Any real Malaysian will tell you time is not so much of the essence, discussions can be done over coffee, or if you’re really Malaysian, do business at a Mamak or hawker stand over some noodles or a Nasi Lemak.

But now many of these niceties are a pleasure and when do they become a hindrance to doing business? When do all those pretty side dishes get in the way of attaché cases and business documents?

So whilst on the subject of Malaysia, I’ve been in South East Asia now for a few months, and I thought it time to perhaps critique a few Malaysian web sites. So I went to Google and typed in ‘Malaysian Business Sites’. Sure enough, I find a Malaysian Online Business Directory, well presented and it loaded quickly. Great we’re off to a good start. Not quite pal, back it up a little bit.

Now I know a lot of you will be saying ‘who is this guy busting the chops of Asian web designers?’ but the truth be known, I have my own criteria and they simply don’t meet it. Designers of any country mustn’t ever forget that a web site must serve a purpose for a corporate. Not just provide a bold aesthetic.

Having said that, let’s take a look at a few corporate Malaysian web sites.

‘I told you, the cheque’s in the mail’
http://www.pos.com.my/

First of all, the Malaysia Pos (national post office). It’s always difficult being meaningful to the masses when the whole population somehow fits into your target audience. So let’s put the Pos Office under scrutiny first.

Being the jaundiced cynic I am, I must admit the designers have done a fantastic job with the visual design, colour scheme and navigation. It’s appealing to most, inoffensive to everyone and relatively logical.

So where do the problems lie? First of all the national language is Bahasa Malaya. So even if this site is targeting corporate Malaysia, which speaks the language of US dollars they can’t tell me there isn’t a requirement for a Bahasa language version because all the models in their photos is a Malay Muslims – whose English skills are quite varied.

Secondly there is that gaudy hit counter on the front page. More than anything, it disappoints me to know that only 66,000 odd people have been to the site. It might be relevant to a personal home page, but a government department. Now that’s vanity!

Now for the really prevalent gripe. These Malaysian designers love to use frames. Now for any aspiring web designers out there, frames in web sites are like those SUV vehicles. They look great so people like them but are clunky, outdated pieces of hardware and there are far better ways to get the job done.

Why? Because each content page must appear within the frame set. If the page doesn’t, you have no title, navigation, menus, absolutely zilch just content without context. And for all intents and purposes, it means that users must enter via the front page of the site, and not any secondary pages that would probably be more relevant to them. So logically, Google only lists the front page of POS Malaysia and won’t give you the sub pages. Oh and the thing I really dislike, you can’t bookmark any page and every page has the same title in the top-left former ‘www.pos.com.my’. Fantastic work.

the menu problem on the pos malaysia home page

And did you notice the drop down menus on the front page (see above)? Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Somehow the menu titles get cut off, so you can’t make out the full menu title to know where to navigate.

OK so there are some of the major gripes down. Now what if I want to print something? There is no printer friendly version. So anything I need to print, will print exactly as it appears on the screen, which might not be entirely easy to read and will cost me a bomb in colour ink.

A slow boat to China
http://www.westportmalaysia.com.my/

Now let’s have a look at shipping company Westernport Malaysia. At first, I found the design very usable and easy on the eye. But then what’s with the spinning logo in the top left and the animation everywhere?! And again frames and a hit counter!

Has no one told these people that if they check their web server, they will get far more meaningful statistics than how many people have hit the page? Again i’m not totally impressed that 35,000 people have been here. And since when exactly have these 35,000 people traipsed through the site like a trendy display home? It’s not a reliable figure and it makes no difference to the service that this company provides me. I like to feel looked after not customer number 35,001.

Now I’ve been reading the front page for two minutes and that spinning logo and the animation is really starting to bother me at this point.

One other beef with the use of frames here as well, is that once I click around the menu items, the actual category I am in is not highlighted. Use of breadcrumbs or a highlight of the section I am currently in on the menu would be a great help in boosting my confidence using the site.

It’s all about appearances
http://www.land-general.com/

The next site we’ll look at is Land and General Berhad (Berhad means Limited). Now this site is really sublime and simple navigation and text layout. Very easy to read and uncomplicated. So what is my beef you ask? It’s the Splash page (below). That is the meaningless first page with a huge image to create that all-important first impression. Pity it took two minutes to load – and if you ask me that’s an instant negative impression of a company.

the splash page of the land and general web site

Now did someone say animation? Animation is cute and chintzy, let’s leave it at that. But at the end of the day it’s an annoyance and only distracts me from reading the site. If you’re one of those really instinctive, ‘if something is moving, you’ve got your eye on it’ types, you will know it’s extremely hard to read with such moving distractions.

But why are these pages taking soooo long to load? I’ve clicked on the link ‘the latest’ and it’s been five minutes now and I’m still staring at a blank white screen. I click stop and it turns out that there is 11 printed pages, count them 11 on one page. It looks like they didn’t bother with sub-navigation and keep stock piling the news on one ruddy great long page. That’s it. I’ve had my tether with these fellas. My time’s too precious to be wasted. Well on anything this dry and humorless anyway . . .

The plantation situation
http://www.goldenhope.com.my/

Welcome to Golden Prospect Plantations. Normally I’d continue to prattle on about use of frames etc., but it’s kind of ironic for a company responsible for oil palm plantations to have a site dying of neglect. I honestly think that they have completely forgotten that the site exists.

So in short, yes the design of Golden Prospect does well and truly suck. It’s only saving grace is on the front page a copyright statement that reads Copyright Golden Prospect Plantations. One can only assume this was the last time anyone gave a second thought to the site – five years ago! Believe me back then this site would have looked totally avant-garde and cool. So I refuse to judge it by today’s criteria.

I’d also be less inclined to do business with anyone that does a web site half heartedly. It tends to suggest that there are too many senior chiefs and executives giving orders and not enough Indians to act on them. They are simply keeping ahead to fall behind.

Conclusion

So there you have a crude, quick and dirty look at corporate web sites in Malaysia. Frankly all these sites are like eating in a Malaysian Hawker food stand: the sauce is always fantastically tasty, but it’s how fresh the meat beneath it is that matters.

While the Golden Prospect Plantations people, their beef was rotten and mouldy. Whereas Malaysia POS and Westernport made some design faux pas which makes the meat a little bit hard to chew. Especially when they find out how much the designer’s negligence could cost them to fix.

Let’s not forget Land and General, whose meat was still frozen beneath the hot gravy. Yes even in real estate it’s not all about the aesthetic.

Now by no means is this a fair and accurate representation of Malaysian web sites. However given the diversity and the means by which the sites were selected, it was however a ‘fair go’. The methods used to select them were no different to what the average consumer would go through in finding a site.

In fairness, many western sites would probably not stand up to reason either. But this was an objective look at how effective Malaysian web sites are, and I am not entirely convinced.