A
website represents the company's
image and acts as a bond between
its customers and the company. The
major players of Pakistani's cellular
industry are now converging upon
a similar set of services like zero
line rent or increased validity
of your pre-paid card. Their sites
also confirms this idea as all of
them are built on nearly similar
sort of lines. A quick and brief
review of Pakistan's cellular companies'
websites is presented in this article:
Mobilink:
URL: www.mobilinkgsm.com
Usability: 8/10
Appearance: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
Mobilink provides its users two
versions of its site, html and flash.
Users having low bandwidth can view
the html version instead of viewing
the flash version which takes quite
a while to load on dialup. Once
loaded, the flash version looks
quite dull at the start but the
colors start filling up once you
move your mouse over the links.
But it seems that flash version
is there for the sake of it and
doesn't actually bring up some innovation,
a trademark of flash websites all
around the world.
Warid
URL: www.waridtel.com
Usability: 5/10
Appearance: 7/10
Performance: 6/10
It
seems like that the site is still
in experimental phase. The site
requires some re-considerations
to improve usability. Normal users
usually find it difficult to locate
the tariffs of different packages
which are especially important for
the newest company in the cellular
market. Also, the javascript menus
need some attention as they take
quite some time to load and give
errors on mozilla firefox browser.
Good points include: Seasonal offers
like Basant ringtones or caricatures
of some famous cricketers.
Ufone:
URL: www.ufone.com
Usability: 7/10
Appearance: 9/10
Performance: 8/10
The animation at the top takes quite
a while to load specially on dialups.
But the important thing is that
it does not halt the information
on the page to appear. Over all
the information is nicely placed
and does not confuse the user too
much. One thing noticeable is lack
of explanation in certain cases
where it looks like that the user
is supposed to visit these pages
only if he knows what they're about.
And the popup banner at the start
is turn off and it wont be serving
them anymore with all the popup
blockers Google bar or Mozilla Firefox
have to offer.
Paktel:
URL: www.paktel.com
Usability: 7/10
Appearance: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
Paktel claims its site to be the
most comprehensive of all. Well
it's true that they have placed
everything that a user would like
to know. But the music starting
at the star could become annoying
to some especially with the fact
that it won't stop when you click
the stop button if the site is still
loading. Overall the information
is comprehensive and is categorized
nicely in the menu. But again, popups
are dying their death now, they
also need to get rid of them.
Telenor
URL: www.telenor.com.pk
Usability: 8/10
Appearance: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
Telenor's site is very basic and
simple. But often it's a nice idea
to keep things simple for the sake
of user's convenience. They do offer
services like setting up your GPRS
and MMS from the site. So the website
has all the necessary information.
Telenor's website is the only one
which does not provide Web-to-SMS
feature to site visitors.
djuice
URL: www.djuice.com.pk
Usability:
7/10
Appearance: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
Telenor recently
launched its new product with the
name of Djuice. This product has
a fully associated website focusing
specifically on Djuice features.
Since the package is targeting younger
generations, the site is also designed
with similar considerations. Overall,
the site is nicely branded representing
the product in its true colors.