Snap, snap… crash!

I think I have just witnessed what could be one of the most horrible launches of a site that I can recall in recent memory. Canon in Australia have been advertising offline and online the launch of their new “EOS400d Digital SLR”:http://www.canon.com.au/eos400d/default.aspx camera. For the launch they are running competition to win one every week for the next few weeks (plus a few minor things… like a huge holiday). I thought I’d join the fray and enter a few pics to see if I could win a camera.

On initial inspection, a reasonable looking site, with fair bit of gratuitous flash. “Hyro”:http://www.hyro.com/ and “Leo Burnett”:http://www.leoburnett.com.au/ managed to get their names snuck in the footer as developer and designer. If I was them I probably would be removing any association with the site.

My bemusement started when I registered an account. It errored half way through the process and still managed to get an email and an account but only having completed half my details. According to the Terms of Service many of the details I missed are required for winning the prize.

After finding the profile page and adding what was missing, I tried to upload a photo. While it worked reasonably, and even offered a progress meter for the upload, it looks as though someone was not doing any decent testing as the progress bar increased horizontally (which would be normal) but also vertically (which basically pushed the whole page downward).

The footer made me cringe… _”Site optimised for Internet Explorer version 4 and above”_. The html code didn’t do too much either to make me feel better, some bright spark still thinks tables are used for laying out content. What happened to web standards?

Yesterday was meant to be the launch for the viewing and voting on the submitted entries. That didn’t happen and come this morning the first indications that the gallery was about to be released started appearing… in the form of .NET application errors. Not exactly a great start but after the errors were fixed, what was left was a fairly average looking gallery without the ability to view the details of the submissions (and I would assume vote).

From looking at the number of photos it would appear that they have seen a good response (which could explain the downtime). Lots of pages of photos (roughly 2000 photos on a quick check) but no way to search properly. Yes, they have a search feature but for me did not return anything I searched for, so I had to browse through 250 odd pages to see if I could find my entry (I still haven’t found it yet!)

So a rather bumpy ride in trying to launch what appears to be a fairly simple web application. What amazes me is that they haven’t even considered making something that is engaging and that creates conversation.

What would be a perfect use for a blog to keep people updated is a missed opportunity. Presenting a personal face to keep everyone informed about the downtime or bugs would have worked to their benefit. We are all human (yes, even big multinational corporations and agencies) we make mistakes, admitting to it can work in postive ways.

The site is a very impersonal, part brouchure, part gallery with no real care for the user (I won’t even start on poor usability). Ironic, seeing that the users are the core of the site and also the purchasers of the cameras. I guess social web applications are slow to catch on over here in Australia (or perhaps a lack of vision in agency land). The benefits to brand experience in letting your members communicate is huge. Theres a handful of great photo sharing site out there that could have been used as a model, why not use what works with “Flickr”:http://www.flickr.com. Let the members be the experts, let them post the tips. Let them comment on how to use their great new Canon camera or even let the winners give feedback on their experience with the new camera. So many options for to engage in a conversation.

From the “cluetrain”:http://www.cluetrain.com/:

Markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

Can you tell I am a little bored of cookie cutter websites with no thought for the user or their voice? I’m certainly ranting over the poor launch and yes, I’m a little ahead of the curve in “pushing”:http://www.syndeomedia.com/ the social internet but for a site that is carried by user generated content, it is virtually a ghost town for any real human communication. Come on Canon, do us a favour and start a conversation!