Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Smile! You're a background on YouTube!

From US Embassy Manila (under new management):



US Embassy Manila is also sporting a new website. It's not the template version that we see in most embassy websites, but it is also less elegant than the previous version. I must say that the old website was getting a tad too crowded and probably needed the redesign, anyway. But the new website feels more cramped; surfing it makes me feel as if I'm in a tiny elevator going slowly to nowhere, you know. 

Please, folks! The last time I counted them, the Philippines has 7,100 islands.  Can't you make your website reflect that span of space and water in your design? It's hard to breath online under such cramp quarters. Seriously. 

Although the Tagalog button is non-functional as of this writing, it looks like, the website will eventually become bilingual (Tagalog and English).  This in a country with 175 languages, where at least 10 are considered major and at least 8 are considered co-official.  Heh! It is also a country strong in regionalism, to a point where residents sing their own version of the Philippine National Anthem, so as not to sing it in Tagalog or Filipino, considered the language of Manila — the political and economic capital of the Philippines during the Spanish and American eras.    

While we're on the subject of the Philippines, you might want to go over to WhirledView and read Patricia Kushlis' A Macabre Filipino Election Tale – Where the Past Intrudes Upon the Future







No comments: