Usability analysis of MUSIC.LK.

Web development is an art which  is linking to science. When developing a web site the designer should have to look at on marketing view point also. Hove ever ultimately the web site should be a user friendly one.

Based on 25point website usability check list we can analyze user friendliness of any website. So based on that today I’m going to analyses one of famous entertainment website, “music.lk”.

Music.lk sri lanka’s number one online music provider gives the opportunity to surf millions of songs, thousands of artists. They mainly provide Sinhala/Tamil mp3 and Music Videos  Free Download facility for PC or Mobile. 

Their vision is to “increase the profile of Sri Lankan music world wide and to see that the benefits from the increased profile go back to artists and professionals in the music industry”

Now you have some idea about music.lk. So now it’s time to apply 25-point website usability checklist to  Music.lk. The 25 point checklist is divided into 4 roughly equal sections, namely Accessibility, Identity, Navigation, and Content.

Accessibility

Music.lk takes around 6 seconds to load its full home page. The loading time is fairly reasonable. Because the home page is contain with many videos and pictures. The main text color is white in the ash color background which visible and adequate. Font size and pattern is eye catching.

 

background color changes

When you move the cursor on top of each song/ main topic you could see the background color of that particular song is changing. And cursor mark also changes.

not‐found/404 page

The main drawback of this site is the “not‐found/404 page”. In that page does not have a link to home page or music.lk logo.

Identity

The logo

As you can see, company logo is placed on the upper left corner of the page. But its dose not has a tag line. From all the menus and pages it is possible to come back to the home page without any problem and the total home page is visible around 7 seconds. 

Music.lk is a well arranged web site. But to find details about music.lk there does not has clear direct path “information or about us “. You can find those details under “contact” tab. So I think music.lk should develop direct tab for “info”.

As I mentioned above, under “contact” tab we can see both info & contact details. Under contact details, telephone numbers, email address n office address r available.

  

Navigation

Main navigation is so easy as the main tabs namely, Home, Music videos, Audio songs, DJ & remixes, Tamil, Artist, Blogger and Contact are placed visibly on the top strip of the page. Apart to that main navigations in right end of the strip have direct links to their facebook page, youtube channel and Google plus.

top strip

All song titles are with the particular picture of the music video. So its easy to identify the songs.

Music.lk logo has link to home page as when we click on the logo it'll automatically take us to the homepage. Search bar is available at the top ribbon in the right corner because of that users can find any song by name/artist.

Music.lk has many sponsors. So that it has many advertisements. But music.lk team has nicely positioned those ads with minimum disturbance to users. But its better if they can keep their logo top of the site, rather than under the advertisements.

Content

As I mentioned earlier meager headings are clear and descriptive. In the home page under the heading, have 9 new top rated songs tumble. Behind that tumbles we can see changing images which related to those top rated songs.

Home page

When you click on a song you’re going to download page. In there have all detail about the song such as artist, Music, Lyrics writer, Video Director, number of downloads n views. In latter part of that page visitors can leave comments about the particular song.  

There are no pop-ups in music.lk. But can see number of advertisements.

The URL is so mining full. It’s describes the content as it is.

 Finally according to my knowledge Music.lk can be known as one of best websites in Sri Lanka even though it has fewer number of problems.

The Digital Marketing Revolution. Is Sri Lanka Ready?

Hi everyone!!!

“The Digital Marketing Revolution. Is Sri Lanka Ready?”

That was the question I asked in the very first post. Got lot of answers. (Actually 6 comments: p)Some said YES, some said NO. But on my point of view the answer is YES and NO both.

Before going to deep down of the topic it’s better to get  basic idea about digital marketing , as per  Wikipedia Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smart phones, cell phones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing. And marketing process which leads to the development of any organization or brand by using a variety of digital channels such as email, social networks etc.

Now to get some idea about Sri Lanka and digital media we can look at following digital media fact sheet which issued by neo@ogilvy.

According to that fact sheet Sri Lanka has 15% of internet penetration rate. But digital media specialists are forecast within next 2 years Sri Lanka’s internet penetration rate will go around 40%. That means more than today, in the future Sri Lankan customers will be more active in internet and more concern about digital marketing. To that revolution Sri Lanka should have to be ready.

Currently in Sri Lanka almost all main brands has come online, they are maintain their web sites, facebook pages. Some business runs entirely online as for examples we can see anything.lk, wow.lk, tickets.lk, kapruka.lk. They do online operations and digital marketing things. Currently they are making profits and still growing.

Some of business such as Kellyfelder, kottuwilla do their promotions only through social media networks ( facebook & twitter).Most of  public events such as parties & DJ festivals have chosen websites and social medias as their main marketing tool(sunburn Colombo, electro peacock festival)  . So It’s proven Sri lanka is ready for digital marketing revaluation.

But those anything.lk, wow.lk, tickets.lk, kapruka.lk, ikman.lk mainly functions in Colombo and substations areas. Because most of Sri Lankans might not aware & facilities for access them. On other hand even though people have facilities such as smart phones, internet access they may not conferrable with online purchases. When looking at following chart we can understand that we are in bottom level of both Asia & world’s average internet penetration levels.

 Finally just look at following image and you can understand whether Sri Lanka ready for Digital Marketing Revaluation or not.

cheers...