How RTM Can Improve Its Landing Page - And How Others Can Learn From Its Mistakes

This is a review of the Malaysian government owned broadcasting station RTM. The RTM owns two TV stations and several radio channels, everyone broadcasting almost 24 hours a day. These are some areas its website's landing page can be improved upon.

1) Do Not Run Live Video ON Your Landing Page.

It may appear hip and enviously modern, but running videos straightaway on your landing page is never good just yet simply because of loadability - not all browsers are capable of playing it at once. I have seen this at work with disastrous results. One of the most annoying things is to have the browser asking you to download a software plugin so that you could view the movie. No one likes to install anything on their PCs. Asking them to do so is a turn-off, unless of course you have something really, really special for viewers. Use thumbnails instead. If viewers are interested, they can click to view. If not, they go on to something else - and at least they will stay longer on your site and not just click out.
Tip: Go visit YouTube. Learn how they display video.

2) Don't Use Silly Javascripts

Some picture-intensive websites just love to mark their territories and show how smart their webmasters are by embedding annoying little pop-up message boxes that tell you not to download their pictures because they were copyrighted materials. (In the past, they used to do this through watermarks and they still do.) Now, they disable your RIGHT CLICK. Websites are better off without these. If anyone wants to download your picture, there are at least five ways to do this, regardless you like it or not. So, try not to insult the user's intelligence by javascripting your site with the Do-Not-Copy-Anything-From-My-Site-Or-Else. You are broadcasting to the world now, remember that.
Tip: Savvy users use Print Screen to copy pictures from websites whether you like it or not. Aside from that, Mozilla also allows its Firefox to copy images. If you don't believe me, launch Firefox and see for yourself. And of course, you can use other powerful graphic softwares like Photoshop, if you wish.

3) Mind Your Language

If you have a bi-lingual site, make sure you truly assign the designated section to that language. If you are speaking Bahasa Malaysia, then all links and text should point to and be in Bahasa Malaysia. (And if it is the England, then it should be in the Inggeris-lah.) If not, it really doesn't mean much to say this is for Bahasa Malaysia and there is the link for the English Version.
Tip: You are broadcasting to the world. If it is English, then use all in English so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.

4)Try Not To Use Thumbnails For List Items

Bullet lists such as [ol] and [ul] are the best for listing items for obvious reasons. But no one can stop you from using thumbnails if you wish to beef up your site's graphics content. But wherever possible, try not to repeat any thumbnails that appear too big (above 10px by 10px) otherwise you run the risk of having clutter on your landing page. Missing thumbnails run havoc with little Xs all over your page and this make you look real bad.
Tip: Stick to bullet lists - they are faster to load, less cluttering and can be seen in all browsers. Besides, thumbnails will end up like misplaced Xs if the viewer decides to disable graphics in his browser. Very, very ugly.

5. Best Viewing Practices

If your site is best viewed using a certain browser or if it has been optimised for Firefox or IE, at a certain screen resolution size, then stating it somewhere on your site is good public relations. You give your reader a choice whether to use a better browser or stick to the current one. At least he will be informed and not think that there are some missing parts on your website or that there is something wrong with your site or his computer.
Tip: You can place this best viewing practice at the bottom or top or anywhere else, but to make it less intrusive, the bottom of the page is fine. If it was my site, I would prefer it to be at the most prominent position possible, ie. above the taskbar. Better still, optimise your site for all browsing platforms so that you don't need to put up this message.