Urbana.co.in| Bengal NRI Complex Ltd.| A case study on how NOT to build project websites!
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| The Urbana Homepage |
Home Page: The homepage looks nice. The Urbana logo and the small catch line of 'Change Your world' looks neat, along with a Happy New Year Message (er, wasn't that four months ago?) and a nice artist's impression of the project. There is that smart announcement that Phase I is sold out which means I got to hurry up or I will miss the bus. The navigation looks neat and the site is not cluttered. I go straight to the media room to see what the press is saying about Urbana.
Media Room: "At 550 feet, seven high rises coming up at Anandapur will be the tallest residential buildings in the city by 2011
Saikat Ray | TNN
Kolkata: The city is reaching for the clouds, quite literally. Kolkata’s skyline is going to climb 550 feet high by 2011 — up from 330 feet now — when the city’s tallest residential venture will be ready at Anandapur, off Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. The complex will have two 45-storeyed and five 40-storeyed residential buildings constructed by Bengal NRI Complex Ltd, a consortium between a group of realtors and the state government. The Rs 2,000-crore project will take off this year-end and be completed by December 2011, said a realtor associated with the project." - Times Of India Kolkata; Date: 2008 Jul 12: Section: Times City; Page Number: 2
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| Urbana Project Progress: Under Construction |
That is what I read up first. Wow, so I am buying myself a home in an INR 2000 crore project that is scheduled to be delivered in December 2011. I am impressed. I quickly close the press release window and click on Project Progress. It tells me curtly that this section of the website is under construction and that I should check back later! What? Not a single picture? A construction update? When the announced delivery date is just six months away. How do I know what the on site status is? I hope its just a miss and everything is actually as per schedule.
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| Urbana Times: The January 2011 Edition |
Hey wait, I can see a news letter there and I download it. It is 8 months old and is a MASSIVE 2 page document! No kidding! It has all sorts of pictures of important looking people but not a single picture of the site! Is this a quarterly news letter? Or a yearly one? A 2000 crore project sure can afford a few more 2 page PDFs on their website. But sadly, it is not there. If they mail me the pics and text, I can make one for them online in under an hour and have it hosted on the net.
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| The really cool present- future infra PDF |
Project Location, site plan and floor plans: I move on to the project location and other site specific features of the website. The PDF on infrastructure is a nice one. The future images of the roads and connectivity boosts my confidence that Urbana is located right and ingress/ egress and CBD connections will be a breeze.
The site plan and floor plans section starts neatly. There is a nice birds eye view and a zoom and pan enabled look of the entire site. I fiddle around a bit and I can make out how the site is laid out and where the apartment blocks, club, common areas and landscaped spaces are.
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| Urbana: Site Plan and bird's eye view tools |
I hit another road block as soon as I get to the floor plans. The wife has joined me and she needs to see how the apartment is designed and laid out. She also wants to know the sizes of the bed rooms, the toilets and the kitchen. And the kitchen. Hehe. Hope you fellows can identify with that bit. ;)
The 20 page floor plan PDF is hopeless! You cannot make out anything. Initially I think that it must be a function of the zoom. However, the more I zoomed in, the worse it gets!
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| Urbana: The floor plan you can't make out |
I can make out the bedrooms and other areas by the way they were designed but not a single dimension is legible. The screenshot of what I see is attached right here. You can try downloading and deciphering it. Unless you have a famous address on Baker Street, London, I doubt you will do better than me. And I live in the USA anyway! The wife is upset and the decision has been put on hold. She has moved to the lawn already, lemonade and newspaper in hand. I move the 20 page floor plan PDF to the recycle bin and move on to navigate further.
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| Urbana: Features Page - Huh? |
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| Urbana Spec Sheet: INR 2000 crore project? |
Features and Specifications: I move on to the features and specifications part of the website. A page opens up which talks about the project area, a few other things and beat this.
- VRF Air conditioning that saves 30% power. What is VRF anyway? Could they not have put an explanation? Is it similar to rocket science?
- Video door phone. (Okay, I never knew that was such a big deal. I am not moving to Kabul you know!)
- Community hall. Gee, I ran out of words here. Maybe I would liked to see a list of all amenities, bells and whistles that the place comes loaded with. I am sure it does, but I do not know from the website!
I hit the download spec sheet link and the pdf that opens up is down right crap! Even a first semester graduation student can produce a neater looking document than this one. Its right here for you to see. 2 on 10 for this effort for the dudes at Urbana! Nothing more.
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| Urbana: Video 3D walk through is neat |
Gallery: This bit of the website is no nonsense and great. The videos and images are neat. The videos are configured not to hog bandwidth and take ages to load or run with jerks even on wireless dial up connections. I went through all the videos and images and was quite impressed.
Goes to show that the agency handling market communication and collateral is great. The information that this website needs to share with a prospective buyer like me is in place but the web interface itself has been very shoddily assembled.
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| Urbana: The people behind the change pdf |
The people behind the change: This is another neat PDF. Reading about the promoters and the consultants associated with this landmark project gives me confidence and peace of mind.
But then, why would such people, neglect the most critical point of information sharing like their own website? It is their public window into the world, beyond national borders and barriers of night and day. Remember, folks at Urbana, your website has no holidays, no day or night. It is active and out in the public domain 27 x 7 x 365. Please pay attention to it. Your PDFs are great, the videos and neat and the people behind this landmark are some of the strongest brands in East India. But, as a buyer, apart from the videos and pictures and two PDFs, I have no other information which can help me make up my mind!
I do not even know what prices are you charging and how much in totality do I have to pay to become a resident at Urbana. And yeah, why do you have the application up there then? Beats me. On the website experience, I would give you 4 on 10 overall!
The Grand Finale: Out of curiosity, we wanted to find who were the brains behind the website. Its a company called Wyd Creative and their link is http://wydcreative.com. It seems their website has not finished yet and that is the funniest thing I have ever seen. A group of the finest promoters, embarking on the most ambitious project in East India, getting their website made by a company which does not have a website itself! It cracks us up.We thought the internet was the future and most things including project credibility and reputation would be managed in the virtual world. But, there is something that the dudes at Urbana and Wyd Creative know and we don't. We are going to Google that bit now!
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