Every time
when I see the website of India Post, my mind will be filled with so many
questions and concerns. The first
question will be “Why Department of Post is not utilizing its website
effectively?” Now the websites are the
face of an institution in the Cyber world and people give significant
importance to the quality of the website when they assess an organisation. But in case of DOP, this face is not all an
attractive one.
As you all
know, India Post is on the way of sophistication in all the fields including
technology and operations. But without
building a quality website, how India Post can say that they are on the way of
technological renovation.
You may
think that I am wrong on this subject because the present website of India Post
may be good and sufficient according to your opinion. I respect your opinion,
but after reading this article you have to think whether I was correct or not.
The
definition of websites has changed a lot; once it was a place for mere
presentation of information. But now the
websites are the part of online branding.
Since my areas of expertise are online brand building and SEO, I can give
you a clear cut review of India Post website.
Instead of
going for more technical, I shall make a review on the basis of visible
elements which is more understandable for non-technical persons too.
1. Template Width and Overall Look
The overall
look of the present India Post website is very basic. There is no doubt in this
even for person having basic knowledge in web world. This type out dated templates are not using
in any of the standard websites at present.
This is an
era of High Definition (HD) visuals and resolutions of the gadgets are
increasing day by day. So a trendy
website must be in a full width template and it should have a sufficient space
for showing information in legible letters.
Big fonts and large banners are the specialty of the modern websites.
2.
Responsive Template
This is the
ability of the website template to change the style according to the size and
resolution of the screen through which it is watching. In simple words, you can enjoy the website in
all size of screens without any difficulty. The user experience is same in the
computer monitors or in the Tablet or in the smartphones. The content and style will get adjusted
according to the size of the screen.
In the
recent years, the web traffic from mobile gadgets like tablets and smartphones
are increasing drastically. But keeping separate template for mobile device is
not advisable in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective. Making the website responsive should be the
motive of every webmaster now days for exploring the benefits of SEO.
While
coming to India Post website, it is not at all a responsive one and it is not optimized for mobile devices. Through
the following picture you can see the difference in the mobile view of www.speakpost.com and India Post website.
3. Social media URLs and Plugins
Social
media pages are vital part of an Institution and it is the presence of an
organisation in the social media. As the
name indicates social media Vanity ULR is the major attraction in the social
media presence. Vanity URL or Custom URL
is the easy identifiable or easy memorable URL of a social media business
page. In order to get a vanity URL,
certain condition should be satisfied in some social media sites like Facebook
and Google Plus.
India Post
is a complete failure in this field.
They don’t have a custom URL even in Facebook or Google Plus, two most
popular social media sites in India. The
higher authorities of India Post are actually unaware of effectiveness of
social media marketing. So they have
not given any extra attention to this part.
A small
initiative taken by Postal Directorate through their order
No.11-01/2015-BD&MD was actually amateurish. Instead of obtaining a custom URL they simply
circulated the default complex Facebook URL.
Same URL is updated in the India Post website. This is against all branding concepts.
A well
planned brand will have social media page with vanity URL as its brand
name. See the custom URL of SPEAK POST
below.
While
coming to social plugins, India Post never attempted to add such plugins into
its website. Plugins in the form of
Share, Recommend and Like buttons will increase the presence of websites in the
social media.
4. Quality of Slider and Images
Quality of
the images used in the website plays a vital role in the overall look of the
site especially when it uses in the sliders.
And at the same time clumsy animation should be avoided.
In order to
make website more appealing, separate banners or slider images should be
designed with the help of professional graphic designer. Wording on the banner should be minimum and
in legible large sized fonts.
The images
used in the India Post website are of substandard quality. Most of the pictures used in the site were
not designed for website. Banners and
images designed for some other advertisement or campaigns have been taken as
part of the website. If you analyse the
images in the India Post website you can see the logo in all banners. That means the images were taken from some
other brochures. Actually there is no
need to place India Post logo in all banners which are used in a website
because this will place the website in a lower level.
From the
following picture you can understand that the banners used in the India Post
website are not professionally designed.
5. Browser Friendly
A standard
website will load in almost all web browsers without any issue and gives same
user experience. India Post website is
purely version specific and it will not give same user experience in all
platforms.
6. Standardization of Margins and Padding
If you
analyse a beautiful website, you can see that one of main reasons for the
attractiveness of that webpage was due to its standardized margin or
padding. A professionally designed
template surely will have uniformity in margins or padding. Padding means space between content elements
and its border.
The developers
of the India Post website have not given any significance for the margins and
paddings. This carelessness placed the
website into a next lower level.
See the
image below to understand the mistakes in padding or margin.
7. Colour Theme and Arrangements
You cannot
apply all colours into one website if you are looking for stylish website. You have to select two or three colours as
the base colour and can apply different shades of these colours when
needed. Avoid contrast colours from
template and images for standard looking.
Arrangement
of gadgets or different element of content is as very important as colour
theme. Arranging appropriate item in the
appropriate place is the main challenge in this process. Most wanted or items to which more attention
is needed should be displayed in the prominent place above the fold. Least important item should not occupy more
space from home page.
Style
should not be affected while arranging elements in the website. Arranging more elements in single page and
putting un-even white space will reduce the beauty of the site.
India Post
website is violating all the above said rules.
The developers have arranged the elements without any style
conscious. Arrangement in the home page
is very clumsy and childish. Unnecessary
white space is another fault from webmaster.
8. Multi lingual versions
Killing
process of India Post website has been completed with the addition of
translation widget. This facility is
good but it will not blend in all templates.
You have to consider so many factors before adding such widgets. Fist is whether important section of the
webpage is translatable or not. Second is whether web page contains more images
another is whether the size of the translated texts will blend with the
original template or not.
While
coming
to India Post website, even after translating to some other language,
the website stands as somewhat same as its English version. Even Header
and Menu heads, most important
elements in a website are not in a translatable format. I think it is
in image form. And at the same time latest news section is
showing in English format even after translation. In short there is no
impact in the home page
after translation. And at the same time the translation widget is not
blending
with the template in any way.
Conclusion
In my opinion
India Post has not explored the possibility of its website. If it uses the heavy traffic of India Post
website wisely, it will be another potential area of business. I shall write a separate post on this subject
later. Many other points are there to be
highlighted but stopping with this much and expecting a beautiful face in near
future itself.
Source : http://www.speakpost.com/2015/07/india-post-carrying-ugly-face-in-cyber-world.html
(Received through eMail from POST BANK OF INDIA <postbankofindia@gmail.com>)
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