ePIN overhauls website (3)

Just over a year ago, I mentioned that, ePIN, one of the smaller UK vendors of construction collaboration technology had refreshed its website. This must be an annual task, for they have just done it again (ePIN director Robin Shipston told me in October that it was “being re-vamped as we speak”) – and it is one of the nicest-looking websites in the space.

The site has lots of white space, navigation is clear and simple, there is now a news section (but without any content at the moment), and the old, somewhat unconnected photos have been replaced by a more coherent set of … er … goldfish images.

Why are these relevant to collaboration? The analogy, perhaps, relates to “living in a goldfish bowl”, where there is great visibility or transparency about what is going on inside.

ePin-goldfishThis image, and the shoal of fish all pointing in the same direction (aligned perspectives, perhaps), work for me, but I am puzzled by the two images showing fish apparently trying to escape. Are these team members refusing to collaborate?! (More appropriately maybe, an image of a goldfish jumping out of one crowded bowl into another, empty one came up when I viewed ePIN’s vacancies page).

One possible downside of ePIN’s use of goldfish imagery is the common misconception that goldfish only have a short memory – not a good connection for customers to make when your applications need to retain knowledge and information audit trails about the project.

I even explored some of the website’s boring bits, and there are a couple of oddities (perhaps reflecting ePIN’s user of ‘boilerplate’ text):

  • the Terms of Use cover some currently irrelevant issues such as abuse of ‘Communication Services’, while any disputes will be “governed by the laws of the State of Washington, U.S.A. and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in King County, Washington, U.S.A.” – a bit strange for a UK company based in Lincolnshire.
  • similarly, the Privacy policy talks about collecting ZIP codes (a north American term for what we in the UK call postcodes)

Finally, unfortunately, the site’s PDF document downloads weren’t working.

(Recent related post: Business Collaborator website overhauled)

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