Come on guys, get it together. It's not like you're Universal Studios or something...Come on guys, get it together. It's not like you're Universal Studios or something...
If you've ever wanted to find out something about the Disney parks from the actual source then chances are you've gone to the official websites...
The one above is what you see when you wind up on the front page of the
Disneyland Resort website.
Then you'll find this one if you click on to the
Walt Disney World Resort's website.
And across the Pacific Ocean you'll find the
Tokyo Disney Resort when you click on this website.
In the opposite direction across the Atlantic Ocean you'll find the
Disneyland Paris Resort if you click on this website.
Lastly, you'll come across the Walt Disney Company's newest park,
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort if you navigate to this website.
Notice the differences? In both design, style and quality they vary a great amount. All but one are owned by Disney(Tokyo being the
OLC).
I find it a bit ironic that the blandest of them all is the original one for the Disneyland Resort. It's a bit too wordy for me. Cluttered with too much information scattered about, they could use a bit of design sense from someone at, say Apple? Or even one of their sister websites? Even though they are all owned by the same Mouse, I don't think they're all done by the same art department. This is clearly one instance where I think a little uniformity could help. See? I do believe in cloning... just not the parks.
Out of all the websites, the most creative and visual pleasing is the Disneyland Paris site. It's got great photos and is much easier to navigate than the rest. Tokyo's site is quite accessible, but lacks enough pleasing photos to do such a great park justice. Might I suggest they hire
Chris Calabrese over at
TDRFAN for their graphics? The Hong Kong site is nice and much more maneuverable than the American websites, although it too could use a few more photos of the small, but beautiful Chinese park. WDW's site is clearly better than Disneyland's but there is a generic quality to it that could be plussed as well. Get those Imagineers in there and have them help the web designers with some creative navigability. Better yet, tell Steve Jobs to stop by and give a few pointers. His self imposed vacation should be just about over soon, right?
With such a large marketing department you'd think the Mouse would have a little more design sense for their websites...
