Article written for Marketing magazine Sep’08 – Web Watch column

Posted by John on November 5, 2008

HOT http://www.mcdelivery.com.sg/

5 out of 5 stars

Finally, a website that makes ordering fast food for home delivery as easy as 1, 2, 3. I was glad to find a “First Time Here” link easily on the home page when I was trying to make my first order with McDonald’s online, it detailed a clear step-by-step set of instructions for me.

Upon hitting it, I was pleasantly surprised by their extremely simple sign-up process and order forms. There was no need for me to key in my full address, I punched in my unit number and postal code and viola, my full address was automatically generated for me to confirm.

Overall, the website is beautifully designed. The information and user processes were thoughtfully laid out, void of any form of clutter or distractions. It fitted the “I want it fast and I want it now” audience. Brilliantly executed ecommerce website!

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NOT http://www.singtel.com.sg

2 out of 5 stars

I was at this website to search for instructions on how to forward my office calls when it occurred to me that I couldn’t find the information I wanted. While the search function is powered by Google, it sucks!

It called up a long list of mostly irrelevant results – any page that has your search term embedded in it, from their FAQs, terms & conditions to the products in their consumer division and business division. Powerful but not exactly useful!

Also, SingTel’s naming conventions for their services are full of their own marketing jargon and are difficult to understand. And then there are annoying columns of promotional ads that keeps flashing on the right side.

On the whole, the website is over cluttered with pictures that distract and slow down the loading time unnecessarily rather than complementing the presentation of information. Keep it clean SingTel, and give us a site that’s easy to navigate!