There is a lot going on in the world of website design and development and it can be hard to keep up. As a result, some CEOs believe the only way to stand out is to give creative people free rein over the design of their website.
Now I’ve written about Lexus before and I mention them in my book (which incidentally you can buy here) because they are spending a lot on marketing but don’t seem to appreciate the importance of the experience in the consideration process. Plus, every time I see a new billboard or print ad it seems to be telling me something different.
Bottomline: There isn’t any consistency in their communications.
And then I saw a digital ad this morning and clicked on the link and came to this Lexus Asia website. In my opinion this website is a serious contender for the worst website of 2016.
Sure, I’ve got time for your fancy website to load. Wait, no, I don’t!
People today are time poor and impatient. They don’t want to sit around and wait for your complicated video to load (unless they are given an option to look at the video). And once they’ve watched the video they don’t want to have to burn up a lot of grey matter listening to a lot of nonsense and figuring out how to navigate around the site.
The Lexus Asia site looks good but is terribly complicated. It also looks different to the Malaysia site and uses a completely different approach to the Lexus Malaysia site which also has it’s own tagline.
Make sure your video scripts make sense – “Luxury is stiff. It’s very lobster.” Seriously?
Now following my terrible experiences with BMW, I’m actually in the market for a new SUV and I went to the site to arrange a test drive for the weekend but left angry and frustrated and without a test drive.
So if you designed the Lexus Asia website, here are 5 free tips that you might want to cut out and put on your wall.
- Your website must be consistent and responsive. This means it must look the same on any screen and adapt to a user’s screen size to ensure a seamless experience. Your site isn’t the same on a smartphone, losing the consistency that is key to successful brand building.
- Your website must be easy to navigate and have a clear, easy to follow layout. Get anywhere in three clicks or less is the general rule of thumb.
- Flash is very last year and search engines doesn’t like it and some older browsers even block flash.
- Your site should be free of clutter.
- Make sure your video scripts make sense – “Luxury is stiff. It’s very lobster.” Seriously?
The Lexus site was overwhelming. Beautiful and creative perhaps, but it’s only there to get visitors in for a test drive, not to win an award.
Oh wait, maybe that’s it!
