the bad, and the better sites

won't claim these are the worst and best sites i've come across in the course of my work. fair to say that these are categorised as bad and good based on a brief tour of the site mainly focusing on layout, colour scheme and the usefulness of the contents/links therein.

bad sites:

suaram > belongs to a kuala lumpur-based human rights movement. the main theme colour - a bright lime (or is it apple?) green - is simply off the charts... i need to wear shades! it used to be red and yellow-green on the previous site. it is basically functional and informative but feels rather cluttered and scattered.

information ministry > malaysia's official information, more like state propaganda, channel... but that's another story. no content in content, which to me is ridiculous given it's role and function of disseminating ALL government information not just for the home audience but also international. is minimally interactive with lots of blank space and the layout is old-fashioned, has a sort of sluggish feel to it when surfing.

good sites:

malaysia central > pretty good and very useful site. a bilingual (bahasa malaysia and english) one-stop gateway to thousands of malaysians sites. although the homepage - a box overflowing with links - is nothing to shout about, it's a joy once you're inside. it has almost everything a visitor needs to know as sorted by categories ranging from muslim prayer times, links to major webmails, the current buzz and world news brief.

malaysians aids foundation > colour schemes are neutral and the layout is classy and easy to navigate. contains useful links to various related organisations and agencies, making a quicktake on the subject that much more easier. visually-pleasing as it uses lots of well-positioned photos conveying positive messages to visitors, precisely what the campaign is all about.