In my opinion the Volkswagen website isn’t particularly well desgined. I don’t like the tool bar at the top of the page, the floating navigation and the floating cars. The car selector on rollover is presented in a really awful way - calling up the horizontal scrollbar which looks ugly.
However, the site does offer a couple of features which two very different clients have responded to in a very positive way.
Firstly, the ‘needs based’ selector on the homepage. This allows the User to self identify and allows Volkswagen to direct them to the correct area of the website in one click. By identifying the products or sevices of interest to the User, Volkswagen can not only create awareness of the broad range of services they offer, but also create a positive User Experience by not wasting the Users’ time.
In fact where a broad range of services are offered by one company, this type of direction is an essential.
Another area where the Volkswagen website excels is the Used Car Locator which offers a comprehensive, yet simple search query configurator. There are obviously a large number of options available on each car, but by splitting the options into sections, the User is not presented with a complex and daunting form which would otherwise have put them off.
Thirdly, once the results are clicked on all the options for progressing or saving the journey are displayed on the models specification screen through the use of tabs: a neat and tidy solution to presenting a lot of options in a small manageable way.
These three areas in particular are good examples of best practice and can easily be adapted to present other products and services.
No Comments