Since January 2005, I have been sponsored by Petronas and I have just graduated from Cardiff University last week.I have indicated my interest to join the Corporate Affairs department in Petronas and looking forward to continue my passion in web design and development.

I wish to work towards becoming a web strategist for Petronas as I see it is vital for a multi-national company to have a distinctive website which speak for itself.

Although I have not received official letter from Petronas yet, I am determined to start working. Even if I were to be positioned in a different department, I hope this review will actually caught their attention.

http://petronas.com.my/

Introduction

Everyday starting today, I will spent about an hour or two reviewing Petronas corporate website in various aspects such as overall design, layout, functionality, features, known bug and even into the way the website being coded. I will also provide practical solutions on how the website could be improved.

History

The previous website of Petronas that I first visited was in 2004. I was applying for my scholarship at that time. At that time, the website has its own character. White background, oil rig, small thumbnail images indicating website sections (navigation). It has a clear web hierarchy which indicated by the page banner. (Image below for example)

It didn’t go much drastic changes until few months back. The website has now redesigned with more thoughts, character and features. With all the involvement of Petronas all over the world, I believe they have started to move towards excellence.

Overall Impression

The new website has shown Petronas commitment towards becoming a global player in oil and gas industry, especially regarding its image and branding. Below are useful features which open a door of opportunity for them to move even further:

• Clean, fixed width professional layout.
• Rotating homepage banner / images.
• Improved navigation system (together with dynamic navigation)
• Google search results

Listen more on what I have to say about the overall impression of the website.

• Petronas website review – Overall Impression (6 minutes 29 seconds)

Recently Wikipedia has implemented few new features, and we love it. Just that perhaps the Search box should not be on top because:

Here is the view with 1024 x 768 screen:

Here’s the view on 1920 x 1200 screen:

Comment

The location of the Search box has been dragged up to the top which we found somewhat irritating and annoying. Top right? We believe it is not at the right place. It was fine when it is being put on the left where the eyes can easily trace back, but from the above screen shots, see how much “distraction” that was introduced before finding the Search box in Wikipedia.

They got it right on mobile version of the web (Pictur above, from iPhone)

Initially, we are hoping for a top centre and distinctive Search box, because the main idea when people dive into encyclopedia — Wikipedia — is to search for a knowledge. And using the printed, people usually use the Glossary, in this case, the Search box. If the quest for knowledge is full of resistance, then will it be useful or hurtful?

Or, perhaps a shortcut button that would take the user straight up to the Search box. But still, how many will know and use the shortcut button?

We have been given the opportunity to work with Legal Solutions Group, P.L. (referred as LSG in this article) to implement the new guidelines on Lawyers’ Website Compliance. In summary, it is a requirement for the lawyers’ website not to have disclaimer page prior reading the content of the page which contain the information as outlined in the guidelines, linked previously.

Read more on the Guidelines for Lawyer and Law Firm Website – Advertising Rules

Our Approach

We have come with a solution which could be summarized as follows:

1. User visited the page in which contains the restricted information (require them to agree to certain terms and conditions prior reading the page content).
2. The user will be given two options:
   • Agree - The user will be require to type “agree” and click “Continue to read”
   • I don’t wish to continue
3. If agreed to the terms and conditions and wish to proceed, then the user will be taken to the specified page in which the page content will be displayed.
4. If the user does not wish to continue, the user will be taken to a specified page e.g. Home page of the website.

View the flow chart

Result

Below is the image of the disclaimer page taken from LSG website. View the original page.

Click for full view

Additional features

Below additional features which could be implemented to further enchance this disclaimer page:

• User tracking – We can track the number of visitors that are interested to view the information.
• Lead generation – Also, we could put a conversion form to turn visitors to become customers.
• Custom message – The information shown on the disclaimer page is not fixed. It can be customized.
• Page redirection – If the visitor does not agree with the disclaimer, then we could redirect the user to other page i.e. homepage, FAQ, etc to allow them to understand what it is a requirement for them to agree with the disclaimer.

If you are interested to implement this solution to your website, feel free to contact using the contact form below:

If we can have another two minutes of your time to look at the video below:

The idea is not something new, just that Google take it further to allow people to search using images. Few interesting articles if you wish to read more about it:

• Put on Your Google Goggles and Visually Search the World by Mashable
• Confirmed: Google Googles Will Reach Other Platforms by PC World
• Search By Sight With Google Goggles by Tech Crunch

What say you? For more info, you can read about Google Goggles yourself.

Todd Friesen, a person considered by many people in the industry to be the pioneer of Search Engine Optimization. Now, we are proud to share with you the Confessions of a Reformed Spammer.

Does it sparks anything in your mind?

Photo credit – selva

With regards to the latest release of the new WordPress 2.8.6 updates, we thought that it is a good example of how the community helps to perfect the platform – something what we known as contribution.

In the MacWorld Conference and Expo 2009 (watch the video), Chris Pirillo mentioned that a community grows when the members or people in the community act something based on it – speaks about it, promote it, invite others to join – without them being asked to do so.

Just like WordPress, the community continues to grow bigger and bigger. Anyway, thanks to Benjamin and Dawid for reporting the security issue which contributes towards the WordPress 2.8.6, a Security Release version of WordPress.

Learn more how to upgrade your WordPress to the latest version

It is like a wish comes true! We have been haunting this far for list of tools and research that could help business start ups and small business.

The list of Tools & Resources by Inc. will encompass areas such as Doing Business Online, Financial Management, Recruitment, Marketing and more.

Check it out!

Today, WordPress releases its latest updates (WordPress 2.8.5) with updated features as listed. As now, WordPress has been downloaded more than 7 million times and it never shows any stopping sign any time sooner.

From this recent update from the WordPress blog, they have recommend a WordPress plugin that detects if your self-hosted WordPress has been exploited in some way – WordPress Exploit Scanner.

“This plugin searches the files on your website, and the posts and comments tables of your database for anything suspicious. It also examines your list of active plugins for unusual filenames.”

You know that most things recommended by the creators of WordPress is tested and reliable. Just like in business. If you are referred with a company with high profile and prestige, you will be raised even higher that what you were before.

There is no other way to get a recommendation other than showing your credibility and not being an arse!

Photo Credit: jimmyroq

]]> http://mohdrafie.co.uk/2009/recommendation-that-counts/feed/ 0 http://mohdrafie.co.uk/2009/price-for-an-under-construction-page/ http://mohdrafie.co.uk/2009/price-for-an-under-construction-page/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:54:03 +0000 mrafie http://mohdrafie.co.uk/?p=675

Before the launch of your business website, you have decided to put a landing page which has your company name, logo and contact details. If you wish to take it further, you can put the Google Analytics code to see your visitors’ trend during that period.

No matter whatever your reason, you must get your website online as soon as possible. Because if they made a comeback (returning visitors) and still seeing the construction page, you might loose a potential clients or customers for your business.

If your website received about 200 queries, and have about 50% returning visitors. The questions are…

How many clients or customers you have turned down? And can you afford to loose them during the current economic condition?

Today, Rafie tweet about SMART Metering during his lecture:

Learning about SMART metering. #Privacy issues causes they delay for the introduction in the UK grid.

What he did not expect is a twitter reply from Susan Lyon, a Privacy Lawyer:

Who is teaching the SMART metering class? Would love to connect with your prof about #privacy issues in UK #smartgrid

Now that is a proof how social media can connect people of the same interest!

Social Media ROI by Intersection Consulting