Issue #0516/3 - Are European web designers better than US designers or are they given a better brief? Oki’s newly designed sites on each side of the Atlantic might suggest that to be the case.
US web page showing suppliesand accessories for C5200 page printer
Having now launched its new-look website in Europe, we can see that the design is slightly better than the site previously launched in the Americas.
Although the colouring and the look and feel are very similar between Europe and the Americas, the European sites are more user-friendly and do not use the unreadable blue-grey colouring for small text in the important product specifications and information areas. This colour is reserved for the home and corporate pages, mostly for banners and headline text.
UK web page showing‘Technology Explained’ information
Aiming to be friendly and helpful to users, the European sites use eye-catching animations and provide a greater level of technical explanation to users that the American sites do not offer. For instance, under ‘Drivers’, the European sites offer a ‘Technology Explained’ option, whereas the American site throws the user into a page that demands to know which model the user needs a driver for but provides nothing else.
Under ‘Technology Explained’, Europeans are offered information on a wide range of topics including: Reducing User Intervention; Oki printers have built in web servers; Reducing paper usage; What is Auto Colour Balance?; and What is Single Pass Colour Digital LED Technology? Animated graphics are used where appropriate to illustrate the explanations.
UK web page showing suppliesfor Oki C5200 page printer
One further major drawback of the American sites however, is that, despite the launch of the new ‘global identity’, the old okidata.com URL is still being used even though the web site announces itself as ‘Oki Printing Solutions’.
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