Smarttogo.co.uk: Smart or dumb?
- Added:
- Feb 28, 2005
It's been some time since web design magazine Create Online closed its doors. Back in the day, the mag used to run a regular column reviewing the month's B2B site launches.
The astonishing thing in those days was the sheer weight of sites that had no business application at all. For some it was a compliment to call them “brochure wear”.
These failings were, in part, understandable. The stuffing had been knocked out of the web’s credibility and broadband was yet to make serious inroads into the country's households. Many businesses still had a yearning to have a site but no concept as to what that site could and should be achieving for them.
Smart Retail's new site is, in some ways, something of a watershed for business websites.
Firstly, despite the fact it attempts to connect to both business users and customers, it does have a clear focus. And yet in no way does it attempt to reinvent the wheel.
Customers can request brochures or test drives at a local outlet, they can create their own personal profiles of favourite cars and features, they can search for used models and they can download wallpapers, screen savers and images from the latest advertising campaigns.
Not much earth-shattering material there then. But each function does exactly what it's meant to do. Adding wallpapers and downloads to a site these days is a bit of a no-brainer and it's easy to criticise people who want an image of a Smart car as their PC backdrop. But in terms of extending the reach of the brand for virtually nothing, every little download helps.
Similarly, the option to request test drives at local retailers can build more robust relationships with customers. And by offering a database of used cars the manufacturer is making an attempt to retain customers within its brand.
At the same time, the site also works as a management reporting tool for the 14 Smart Retail outlets, allowing managers to keep tabs on stock controls. It's a relatively simple site but JJ and owner Daimler Chrysler are really squeezing every last drop of utility out of it.
Design wise, the site is a little cutesy but that's a fair representation of the Smart brand - Aston Martin this is not. And although the use of animation could be criticised for unnecessarily hogging bandwidth, the increasing penetration of broadband makes this an irrelevancy.
One niggle though is the typography. It doesn't really "commit" itself to any other element of the design and seems to be a compromise, falling between two stools rather than making a statement in one way or the other.
So why is this site a watershed? Because it doesn't do anything new, but it does everything it needs to and it does them very well.
Five years ago it may have drawn criticism for this, for not being adventurous or ground-breaking. But in these days of a new, more mature web, we may finally have understood how a site fits totally into the business strategy.
JJ and Daimler Chrysler certainly seem to have cracked it.
Smart cars, which have been eating deeply into Daimler Chrysler’s bottom line lately, ought to benefit form this site relaunch.
Now all they have to do is sell more of the damn things.
The astonishing thing in those days was the sheer weight of sites that had no business application at all. For some it was a compliment to call them “brochure wear”.
These failings were, in part, understandable. The stuffing had been knocked out of the web’s credibility and broadband was yet to make serious inroads into the country's households. Many businesses still had a yearning to have a site but no concept as to what that site could and should be achieving for them.
Smart Retail's new site is, in some ways, something of a watershed for business websites.
Firstly, despite the fact it attempts to connect to both business users and customers, it does have a clear focus. And yet in no way does it attempt to reinvent the wheel.
Customers can request brochures or test drives at a local outlet, they can create their own personal profiles of favourite cars and features, they can search for used models and they can download wallpapers, screen savers and images from the latest advertising campaigns.
Not much earth-shattering material there then. But each function does exactly what it's meant to do. Adding wallpapers and downloads to a site these days is a bit of a no-brainer and it's easy to criticise people who want an image of a Smart car as their PC backdrop. But in terms of extending the reach of the brand for virtually nothing, every little download helps.
Similarly, the option to request test drives at local retailers can build more robust relationships with customers. And by offering a database of used cars the manufacturer is making an attempt to retain customers within its brand.
At the same time, the site also works as a management reporting tool for the 14 Smart Retail outlets, allowing managers to keep tabs on stock controls. It's a relatively simple site but JJ and owner Daimler Chrysler are really squeezing every last drop of utility out of it.
Design wise, the site is a little cutesy but that's a fair representation of the Smart brand - Aston Martin this is not. And although the use of animation could be criticised for unnecessarily hogging bandwidth, the increasing penetration of broadband makes this an irrelevancy.
One niggle though is the typography. It doesn't really "commit" itself to any other element of the design and seems to be a compromise, falling between two stools rather than making a statement in one way or the other.
So why is this site a watershed? Because it doesn't do anything new, but it does everything it needs to and it does them very well.
Five years ago it may have drawn criticism for this, for not being adventurous or ground-breaking. But in these days of a new, more mature web, we may finally have understood how a site fits totally into the business strategy.
JJ and Daimler Chrysler certainly seem to have cracked it.
Smart cars, which have been eating deeply into Daimler Chrysler’s bottom line lately, ought to benefit form this site relaunch.
Now all they have to do is sell more of the damn things.
