Web watch - Nov07

HOT (http://www.tripadvisor.com/)

What does a man do when he's left with two weeks to confirm his honeymoon plans? Although accustomed to putting up in €15 (S$31.16) a night backpackers' hostels, the thought of having strangers as roommates with me and the lovely missus was somehow less than appealing.

With not a moment to lose, I turned to TripAdvisor - a site that offers more meat than the standard travel website.

A travel wiki that gives you an honest overview of the place - far more insightful than the guidebooks. Videos by both users and professionals - sure beats the ramblings of a writer. The goList, where users contribute their list of recommended things to do and see - excellent ideas. Hotel reviews written by fellow travelers covering both the good and the bad - totally brilliant!

By my experience, offering users content by users is what truly win hearts and minds.

5/5

NOT (http://www.prada.com/)

Ask any woman in Singapore whether she "needs" to own at least one Prada accessory and you'll get a unanimous answer. My wife's no different, especially since we're headed to Italy.

"How can Prada offer nothing more than a PDF file of the Fall/Winter collection in their website?" my wife exclaimed.

What stuck out immediately was the PDF icon in the clean looking homepage. While there's more in the site, a less savvy web user could've easily missed the secondary navigation that leads to the other content.

What I didn't like also was how the images overlap each other when you zoom into them one after the other. The initial illusion of discipline in design quickly vanished when I found I could also play two video clips concurrently, with the latter covering the first.

I'm not the primary audience but I know Prada lost out in winning the heart of my wife with the bad user experience.

2/5

John Ng

MD

Profero Singapore