The Makati Police Department debuted their new website today, in an effort to modernize their operations. I know that a lot of people are expecting to hear me pan the living crap out of it, so I’m going to try to be as diplomatic as possible.
… No, seriously.
After a little bit of poking around in the source code, I discovered that the website was developed by this one-man operation. I don’t know anything about him other than the fact that he goes by the name of "SevenInk" (no relation to INQ7). Mr. SevenInk is apparently the single most religious web designer on Earth … well, ok, maybe the second to these guys. It’s kinda unfortunate actually, because his spiritual disposition isn’t the only thing I have issues with. (See my recent anti-religion entries here and here.)
But I digress. (If it’s Allah’s will that the Makati PNP website be designed by a devout follower of Jesus, then good on ya mate!)
I’m kinda in hardcore usability mode right now because I’ve been prepping for tomorrow’s lecture at DLSU, so most of my problems with MakatiPNP.com are with regards to font sizes, layout and the presence of that superfluous splash page. So, yeah, to just get those boring, obvious issues out of the way: usability on this site pretty much sucks. There, I said it.
Now on to the more interesting stuff:
- There is something seriously wrong with those header graphics. At the risk of being facetious, is there a reason for the L337-speak capitalization or the grungy "crime" font? I honestly kept expecting a Nickelback song to start playing in the background with every new page I loaded; the Myspace feel is a tad overwhelming.
- Why do police websites always have an image of the head honcho on their main page? The NYPD, the LAPD, and even the friggin’ New South Wales Police Department in Australia all have them. Perhaps I’m not fully understanding the purpose of having a police chief’s mugshot on a law enforcement website, because I honestly cannot see a compelling reason for his image and bio to be taking up precious front-page real estate.
- You gotta love that email. According to INQ7 (no relation to SevenInk), the Makati PNP website’s central feature is the "Email Mo Kay Hepe" functionality, which allows visitors to communicate directly with the police chief. The funny thing is, their little feature is nothing more than a simple "mailto:" link to an email address. You’d think they could’ve at least added a simple contact form or something. Or at least used an email address that didn’t end in "yahoo.com.ph."
All in all, this website was neither surprising nor particularly engratiating. I do believe that every governmental organization needs to have an online presence, but I kinda wish that it be standardized in some fashion. I get that most of these websites are developed on tiny budgets (I’m not even gonna comment on the likelihood of kickbacks), so standardization is the only way you can make sure each site looks and flows decently. In other words, someone needs to be willing to spend a certain amount of money to develop an architecture and "branding" manual that can be used across all agencies. As long as the manual itself is solid, it will no longer matter who the individual agencies hire to build their websites, as long as they can read English and follow directions. It’s not the most intellectually-stimulating of solutions, but at least it’ll get the job done right.