Designs of The Week: The Best Interactive Car Websites

By guest authors Charles W. Bush and Kathy Hwang of 3Strand Innovation, a brand, design and business consultancy

The idea for this article started when we scoured the web for the best interactive and engaging website designs. When we were done, we realized many of the good ones were automobile websites. And as the public conversation about the American auto industry is focused on the bailout drama surrounding the Big 3 auto companies, we were pleased to see that Jeep and Ford have made strides in their experience design (if not in their vehicles, at least through their websites).

So here are the picks of the week:

Mercedes A-S
Mercedes lets you jump straight into play mode through the design of their highly luxurious website. They welcome you to play with a childlike curiosity that appeals to all your senses. You can almost feel the soft leather seats and breathe in the new-car smell.

Volkswagon
Our guess is that this site was made to cater to a female market. Instead of focusing on the billions of features and ways to trick out your car, it creates a low-stress environment in which to build your model. It’s got a very simple, clean and soft look to it. The model configuration has removed most of the technical babble of buying a car and has inserted playful effects (for example, having your car painted by animated robot spray guns). VW’s site begins to make you feel like you’re buying something much simpler, like a piece of clothing or furniture, rather than a car.

Mini
In contrast to the VW site, this highly customizable site is all about letting you choose every detail of your new toy. More reminiscent of a toy race car than highly engineered machine, the Mini gives you the power to choose. You can chose options labeled “sport”, “dynamic”, and “agitronic”. The site also offers an RC racing game and a quirky game called “Jump.” The game scores your ability to successfully jump into a Mini Cooper (Dukes of Hazzard-style)!

Jeep
This site is just plain fun. It starts with a bit of history behind the Jeep. It then lets you play with the seats, durability, GPS and built-in entertainment (shown in image above). Our favorite is the suspension feature. A cup of coffee is placed on the chassis, and the website requests you throw logs, anvils and watermelons in the Jeep’s path as it rides smoothly over all of them without spilling a drop. Meanwhile, they pop out humorous random facts about how “globally, lightning strikes a 100 times per minute” and how the Jeep is the “toughest 4-letter word on wheels” Also worth checking out is the mini-series the company has done to promote its own super Jeep-man, “The Urrrrrrban Ranger!”

Ford
We hate to jump on the “Bag on Ford” bandwagon, but this website is here because it is not bad in comparison with most of the ones we’ve seen (speaking of which, Aston Martin could use a serious overhaul on their web design). Ford’s site is clean, crisp and simple. It has some flash animations and useful features, like being able to narrow down you car search based on parameters like fuel efficiency and seating. However, it lacks the humor and personality we’ve seen in other sites. The more frustrating thing is that overall, the website emanates the feeling of an oversell from a sleazy car salesman. Let this be a lesson to let users enjoy the site on their own without trying too hard to sell to them every step of the way.

This segment is a part in the series : Designs of The Week