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About This Blog
Hello and welcome to Websites Made Simple. I'm Danny Foo and this is my Malaysia website design blog. I also co-founded a registered Malaysia website design company; Simpleet Solutions. -
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Malaysia and Usability
What do they have in common? *pauses* Come to think of it, we don’t really have much of it. We’ve got the standard press button to cross the road, the standard Touch-n-Go tell amount you have left in your card and some other stuff. The places that you’d find investment in usability are those buildings of big corporations or named companies. Example; when going up in the lift of the KL Tower, it tells you how high you’re going and if I remember correctly, a voice would tell you the level you stopped.
In Melbourne, the city has implemented a new cool toy for tram patrons. It’s a device that tells you the next tram arrival and destined route later. Here’s a snapshot of it:
The system hasn’t been fully implemented and is still in testing phase. But this is still quite cool. Now, they’ve went the extra mile with the toy. Below the pole, there’s actually a button you can press that speaks the details out. Convenient and usability. 
So, why is usability rare in Malaysia?
So you wanna know why Malaysians take usability lightly?
It’s because our lifestyle doesn’t have much insertion or involvement with it. By the time we adopted it, we were once again behind time and never did put it on our R & D list.
That said already, I don’t blame those who design and develop websites for not knowing any of this. I only learnt about all this when Jonathan Poh mentioned it to me back in college. He’s another web designer but more knowledgeabe than me. And I was but an ignorant student who never took it seriously till the later semesters in college. Since then, I’ve been reading much of the teachings online from various sources like Jeffrey Zeldman, Jakob Nielsen, Douglas Bowman, websites and books.
Learning about usability has taught me to not just look at websites in terms of design but sense and feel what might the visitor demand when using the website. I’ve been analyzing websites posted on forums like LowYat and WebhostingTalkMY to be reviewed by other members, and have found that many aren’t adapting to the standards as well as taking the time to think of how their website is going to be used.
I can understand many clients who disregard this nonsense since all they want is an online presence and I’ve faced members who feel that it’s just a waste of time. However, mentality such as this without change is what keeps us from advancing. I hold my beliefs by explaining to clients and help them understand why standards and usability is important.
If the client turns a death ear, then it isn’t really my lost because I still gain revenue from the job and confidence from trying to switch them. So if you’re about to develop or revamp a current website, please take some time and think about your audience and not just yourself.
A website with good usability not only creates a successful online presence but an enjoyable and satisfying experience for both the visitor and you. If it’s a commercial project, usability helps keep your visitors and turnover new ones.
If you’d like me to analyze or review your website, you could either post it up at any of the forums mentioned or leave a note in the comments. 
Posted by Danny Foo on June 30, 2005 | Filed Under News | 
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Thanks Danny
Well, I imagined the navigation is plain text without the box around it and noticed the placement of the post date. It made me realize there’s actually 2 ‘hidden’ columns there on the left. Sometimes in a magazine, we never realize there’s more columns than were expected because we think the content defines the column layout.
Cheers.