Domain NameThe first point of entry to access any public website is the domain name. Business's are born and die because of domain names. Needless to say they are crucial. MayBank has not registered its company name as a domain name, maybank.com is registered by "Beauty, Success & Truth International" in Hong Kong until 2010! Any large company must have its own domain name these days, without it you confuse your customers and allow possible security risks from "Phishing", the art of stealing another company's private data by impersonating that company. Instead of paying a premium price for their domain name, they registered MayBank2u.com and in doing so started a fashionable wave of Malaysian websites all using the "2u" suffix. It was a bad move to be honest and it has had a bad influence on the IT industry in Malaysia, who trusted and followed the whole "2u" idea.
First Impressions & Usability
When I first loaded the website into my browser I was disappointed and confused. I had premeditated some actions I wanted to perform on the website:
1. Find out if there are any bank branches abroad.
2. Send an Email to MayBank
For the first task, I tried navigating the site for ten minutes without being able to find any information on overseas branches. So the site has failed the first test, if there are no overseas branches it could say so, or at least offer a search facility so users can search for such information. Ironically I know there is a branch in London - why information about it is not easily accessible on the website is anyone's guess.
My second mission, to email MayBank2u. Sounds simple enough (stop laughing at the back!). From the home page I found the "CONTACT US" link after a couple of seconds. One click took me to the contact page. Next I find the the "Email Us" link. I click it and discover I am being nudged down the same page to "Use our Online Feedback Form to e-mail to the following MayBank departments and subsidiaries:" yet another link! One more click and suddenly - pop! Two new windows explode onto my screen, one is blocked by my pop-up blocker. I force that one open and find it's a message for people who have lost their credit cards. Not good. If you don't know how to enable the blocked window then you won't be able to access that information. The other window that opened is finally the "Online Feedback Form".
It took three clicks and two pop-up windows before I could even get to the page to email MayBank.
DocType Declaration (DTD)
This website has no DTD. Web browsers will not know how to parse the web pages and will normally default to processing as HTML4 Transitional DTD.
Markup Language
HTML4 is depreciated. The latest XHTML standards should be observed in order to guarantee future web browser compatibility. HTML4 is also a bulkier and slower markup type, because the code:content ratio far higher than for example XHTML.
Meta Tags
This website has Meta tags for SEO, but there are too many entries for keywords which will damage SEO in most cases. Meta tags are not dynamic, and are repeated on every page - they have no relevancy to the actual content, which defeats the purpose of keywords and description Meta tags.
JavaScript Usage
This website heavily relies on JavaScript for even basic functionality such as the inclusion of CSS files. If JavaScript is disabled or not supported, visitors to this website will not be able to use even the most basic features.
Looking at the source code, Maybank2u seems intent on using JavaScript to perform tasks on the client side instead of performing tasks on the server side. 99% of the JavaScript used could be removed and processed server side, saving bandwidth and improving loading times of the web pages. The amount of JavaScript in the web pages seems to be more than 3 times the amount of content in the pages. Is MayBank secretly trying to publish a JavaScript book!?
MayBank2u uses JavaScript pop-ups. These are annoying to users of the website and make pages inaccessible to users who do not use JavaScript. Pop-ups are also often blocked by web browsers. Once MayBank2u pop-ups are generated, their window size and options are often disabled so users can't re-size or use the windows / tabs as they would like.
Proper Use Of CSS
The Maybank website does not make proper use of CSS. Most style is not separated from content, but totally confused with it. Colors and sizes are mostly all determined in depreciated HTML4 tags.
Website Layout
Layout is determined by improper use of HTML tables. Tables should not be used for design layout but should be used for tabulated data. Div tags should be used in conjunction with CSS instead.
Website Text & Context
There is not much text and content in the website, which kind of puzzles me about the point of the website. I thought Maybank would want to save money by using the Internet to post information instead of using telephone and face to face solutions. Reading through the website makes visitors just want to give up and go down to their local MayBank branch (- smoking at the ears).
Website Images
Images are often have distorted dimensions, either because of incorrect HTML or because the images were poorly created in a graphics program. Images appear at too low quality / resolution in most cases. There are so many flashing animated .gif images blinking around, you can dig out and turn up your old 90's techno cassette tapes and start dancing like the millennium is just 6 years away.
Website Navigation
No surprise here, too much of the navigation is confused or inaccessible. The structure of the site is almost impossible to determine. Menu items are cryptically named, such as the "TELL ME MORE" menu at the top of the page. Tell me more what? I keep asking myself that, but I still don't feel like clicking that link. Perhaps they should just label all their links with "CLICK ME" instead.
There is no structure to this website, its missing the "web" part and is just a "site". Any ideas why MayBank is using JavaScript drop-down boxes as menus? I'm also confused, but it could be because they don't want people to access the links contained inside. MayBank2u goes to great lengths to make the website as inaccessible as possible.
I am not surprised to discover that even plain and simple HTML links are replaced by JavaScript events and yet more infuriating pop up windows.
This site is best viewed with IE 6.0 and Netscape 7+ in 800 × 600 screen resolution.
Any website that states it is best viewed in a specific browser is just drawing attention to the fact that it fails to function or display properly in all web browsers. Web sites should appear and function correctly in any browser on any operating system on any device.
800x600 Resolution was the most common screen display resolution in the 1990's. Now its is 1024x768, but the point here is that websites must display well on any resolution screen. You can't tell your users to find an 800x600 monitor and PC running Internet Explorer, just because a so called "web developer" used a system with that specification to make the website.
The Verdict
I cant find any single aspect of the website to award even one point. At the time of writing I found another Maybank website - maybank2e.net and it is even worse than their main website. In conclusion, they need an urgent and complete overhaul from top to bottom. With the front-end in such a mess I can imagine the back-end is just as bad. For such a large company, and online banking portal this website is a dismal failure.
Reference:
http://www.hygen.net/main/index.php?q=node/10
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