Royal Rangers Selangor 7

The National Royal Rangers recently launched their new website! My personal opinion – it’s long overdue! Here’s my unbias run-down about the new website:

Disclaimer: This is a personal view of Cmdr Terence Ooi, Senior Commander of Selangor 7 and does not reflect views of Selangor 7 Outpost. 

This is their new landing page. Looks aesthetically better than the previous! Thumbs up for me!

Ranger Now – “In an effort to continually provide added benefit to our chartered members, the National Royal Rangers Office has created a new publication – Rangers NOW. This annual magazine replaces the previous High Adventure as the primary printed publication for Royal Rangers.” (from the website)

Well – I think this is great. But perhaps, from a local (Malaysia) point of view, it’s best if they can explain what “chartered” members are – does it include RR in Malaysia? Other than that, I think the form to allow comments and our thoughts. 

This got me a little edgy – no fonts standardization.

Also, take a look at the footer – there’s a “program” tab. Don’t you think it’s confusing to have two “program” tabs? One on the header, the other at the footer? 

Thumbs down for me in this case.

I like this! Allows user to see which training camps are available? However, upon clicking on them – I got a FILE NOT FOUND! While thumbs up for this module, it’s a thumbs down because I got to a faulty page.

I like this page. There’s a Facebook link too. But… where’s the link to your blog?

Er… I think this page is pretty dull for a uniform page – which all rangers take pride in. I think the previous site has a real looking person, instead of a drawing. C’mon… show us on this site – not by referring to the leaders manual.

Content Management is still an issue with many websites. Here’s one of them. Make it easy, make it readable. 

This is good. Makes shopping easier! The previous navigation through GPH was really slow and not to mention, tiring!

Lastly, this is cool! Clean, clear space and readable. Great job. Now the key to a blog is – consistency, engaging and quality content.

Other comments:

1. In terms of engaging, I still feel that this website has a long way to reach a Web 2.0 state. Perhaps, when it does, we’d be already in Web 3.0. There is still limited engagement with its users. Feedback seems only one way and not completely transparent. Take a look at Dell Ideastorm or My Starbucks Idea to know what I’m talking about. They’re a good benchmark, and I believe as a body of Christ, we can do well with these. 
2. I think this website shows that they’re still afraid of white space. It’s ok, WHITE SPACE is good. It allows users to “breathe”
3. Where’s the Facebook link to Nat Royal Rangers Facebook page/group and Youtube channel?
4. Guys…Twitter! Twitter! Twitter! It allows short, quick, fast, instant respond, engagement and reporting.
5. I feel personally, that this is just an aesthetic revamp, nothing more, really.

Read 10 Principles of Effective Web Designing

A bit too liberal??

Any thoughts from the National Council or anyone else?