Kiran Bedi has started ‘Misson Safer India‘ to help people launch complaints whose complaints are unheard or unacknowledged by the police. This is really a good service and is surely going to help many people who were unsuccessful to launch a complaint even after visiting police stations and meeting the police authorities.
From my understanding, the website is the primary interaction between the general public and the team behind the ‘Mission Safer India’. But, as of now, the website is not too impressive. I mean it from a purely technical standpoint. Not with the service or any other aspect of the service. I truly believe that the website needs a makeover and following are my suggestions and thoughts.
- Readability is too poor on few of the pages. To be specific the problem is with the images that contain a lot of text. Please see the exact image taken from the website as of writing this article.
Images on the about us page are also difficult to read. Get rid of the images and use text instead. It is good for search engines and easy to read for the older people with vision difficulties. - Accessibility is not taken into account even at the very basic level. All the images on the home page are missing the alternate text which is a basic accessibility guideline and can be implemented very easily.
- The user interface lacks the appeal and it looks very oldish in this Web2.0 world. As the service is going to be used by general public, who may not be very experienced Internet users, the user interface should be very simple and easy to use. Personally I think, website needs a complete makeover with accessibility and usability as the first priorities in design.
- Follow latest web standards. Use xHTML and CSS. Its good for users and good for saving bandwidth and operating costs.
- Do a complete redesign and make sure the website will be simple, elegant and easy to use. May be I can say as simple as using Google for searching!
These are my personal thoughts and I am in no way a guru in web design and usability. But I love designing simple and elegant websites and I spend a lot of time reading web accessibility and usability stuff.
I am writing this article not to offend anyone, but to share my thoughts. I strongly believe in the idea ‘Mission Safer India’ and I am sure its going to help a lot of people.
3 Responses
Dear friends
Please help to the tribals people of Assam, who have been assaulted by the local people on 24 Nov. 2007. I request Mrs. Kiran Bedi tocome forward to help them as she has spoken on “headlines today” on 16.01.2008. Pl. do something to get JUSTICE.
Ravindra Bhagat
Gumla, Jharkhand
You should ask them if you can redesign the site for them. Even if you keep the same design at least you can make it accessible. Give it a go.
Of late…there is some spot where people would be able to lodge complaints without it being too heavy on their pockets as it usually does..