Have been taking advantage of the two week free passes to the Singapore Straits Times online website to do some reading up. Unfortunately the whole experience was quite a let-down.
Having been fed high quality content websites like the NY times or the bbc online, I found it difficult to appreciate the online version of the Straits Times.
Some comments about the Straits Times online edition:
a. I cannot fathom why they wanted a print version of the SS. Hardly anyone would want to zoom in/zoom out of a 15inch computer screen to see a print version normally printed in broadsheet size. I found the whole experience tedious and was put-off by all the print-ads. My guess is that this is more likely for advertisers - SPH is using this as another avenue to entice potential advertisers.
b. Un-customisable front page. Start working on allowing users to customise what they want to see on the front page! Well, at the very least, allow a change of colours?!!!
c. Content, Content, Content. Organising the available content into a user-friendly user-platable online platform requires much thought and design. Here the online SS fails miserably - both in terms of the quality and the delivery. Quality-wise, well we can acknowledge that our writers appeal only to a relatively small market so it is acceptable. But delivery-wise, surely we can take a leaf out of the other websites? Why can't they embed streaming video together with the news article instead of directing me to another website?
d. Integration, Integration, Integration. The online SS content is distributed across various 'hip' sounding platforms like RazorTV, Stomp, Urban, DigitalLife, etc. To me at least, it is all very confusing. I want to read articles relating to lifestyle and I find content distributed across RazorTV, Stomp and Urban. They should be integrated into a single access point for the online user.
A poor effort indeed. Try harder Straits Times. Take a leaf out from BBC and NY Times.
