Design Rockstar

The road is no place to socialize. Kudos to RTA and the ad agency.

Abu Dhabi-based game developer Karkadann Games developed an iOS game app featuring boxing's current pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao - but with a twist.


When you hear Manny Pacquiao, it's boxing, nothing else (unless you'd add, karaoke). But Pound For Pound is a martial arts inspired game where Pacman portrays a martial arts action hero. Hmm...  Would you buy that idea? I guess they're trying to sell the game because "Manny" is in it.  But game play is a big question. Would it be exciting to play only one character? Unlike other action series like Marvel-Capcom, you have huge options of who you want to play.


There's just currently 3 reviews in the store. One criticizing the game being horrendous, "Controls are out of whack, delayed and wandering. Graphics need polishing, music is brain bleeding, and story is incoherent." The other 2 though says that it's a good concept.

The game is currently available in iOS for $0.99 (yes, not free) and will soon be available on Android and Facebook platforms. It is offered in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Portuguese and Arabic languages.

Had a great time today mingling with fellow bloggers at the Pavilion in Downtown Dubai.  It's great to have received an invitation for this pioneer casual get-together with the coolest people from Google Middle East & North Africa.


We started by introducing ourselves and what we blog about.  With us, and hosting the lunch is Google MENA Managing Director, Ari Kesisoglu and Google MENA Communications Manager, Hind Rasheed. It's interesting to know that among our small group, only a couple or 3 uses Arabic language primarily for their blogs. Reasonably, readership is a valid factor. Like here in Dubai, our target audience are mostly comprehensive in English. The demand for the information we provide comes largely from people who at least understand English, expats.  There would be a huge difference though if we talk about MENA region.  We've also talked briefly about smart phones being an accomplice of improving the way people access information.

Four Seasons Hotel Chain unveils one of the world's most, if not the most, expensive website that costs a whopping EIGHTEEN MILLION US DOLLARS ($18m) to develop. Wow! That's about 18,000 heavy websites for me to do to earn that. It would be interesting to see the breakdown of such expenditures, and the development timeline as well.

The landing page

The website boasts of a vibrant, dynamic and photographic look and feel. It has a lightweight booking engine. It loads relatively fast too. The photo jQuery slider looks too big though, it conflicts the call to action, which supposedly is the booking (Make a Reservation form). Especially the photo is intended to "recommend the destination," but isn't clickable at all.

It uses an instant social media sharing plugin from ShareThis. But I feel it still lacks "elements" of a really social-friendly website. The more popular Facebook Like/Recommend, Retweet and Google+ is evidently missing. One article say there are videos, but as I navigate, I haven't seen any. In terms of typography, the font used in headings, navigation and links (league-gothic-1) appears to be crisp and a bit pixelated to "my" eyes. Some pages use 4-5 combinations of font-family, font-weight and styles.

Econsultancy says: "Four Seasons’ revamp is part of an effort to improve online revenue - though its website attracts 30m visitors each year, online bookings only account for 12% of total revenue, an increase of just 2% in five years."

I'm not sure though about the returns it could generate in terms of booking directly on the site - as most travelers prefer to contact travel agencies or group bookings like Hotels.com, Expedia, Stay.com and the likes.

Generally, it's not bad at all - but not excellent overall. It is clean and not overcrowded. Photos are stunning. But user experience should be enhanced further.

The mobile version

The mobile home page (left); and an inner page (right)

The mobile version has a slick minimal design. However, it's quite noticeably image-heavy for a mobile site. Almost every page has a photo or 2. You will have an impression that you are browsing a mobile version of a magazine with a "booking" concept on the side.

World's Most Expensive Website?
TopSharePoint claims that US Gov's recovery.gov is the most expensive website also costing $18m. Ironically, the website is about tracking government spending and promoting transparency. The website "promises to give U.S. taxpayers more information about where their money is going." Apparently some of the money went to one of the most expensive website in the world.

If true, Four Season's website, http://preview.fourseasons.com, indeed is one of the most expensive website in the world.  Why don't they just outsource it to freelancers huh? :-)

Would you trade your entrusted friends emails in exchange for a 'chance' to win a fancy wrist watch worth just AED110 ($29)?