fordvehicles.com

www.fordvehicles.com

this is pretty wild, and if you ask me a huge step forward for flash sites. It looks like ford has gone all flash with their site.

I read that this is a joint project between JWT (ford's advertising company) and FI, Kevin McElroy at JWT was responsible for the visuals.

I don't know if this is as successful as the RR site at this point, the design is great and there are some lovely little touches in the interface. They seem to be opening the sections on new pages, rather than internally, which solves the linking.

I guess I'll reserve my overall judgment, I know that my mum just bought a new focus after checking out websites (in england) and she wouldn't have used this one. There's no HTML alternative so Ford must really be committed to this. It's a smooth site but it's hogging my CPU a bit, but this laptop isn't cutting edge any more.

Either way the design is cool and I think the site deserves to be in here.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by aversion
hogging my CPU a bit, but this laptop isn't cutting edge any more.

Either way the design is cool and I think the site deserves to be in here.

---

Sure does...

hogged my cpu quite a bit too.

Cpu usage was fine, about 3%.

Specs
3.2ghz
2gb ram

Quote:

---

Originally posted by crinkler
Cpu usage was fine, about 3%.

Specs
3.2ghz
2gb ram

---

The point was in relation to an average computer, I have a hyped up desktop too, but most ford buyers don't.

^^ agreed. my mum and dad are on a celeron 400mhz and are far more likely to buy a ford than any designer/gamer type on their super pcs.

The site looks and works well, but I have to wonder about the reasoning behind having it all flash, just doesn't really make sense.

I still haven't had time to explore the site fully, I'm excited by the idea that a company as large as Ford would do something like this, but it doesn't seem so wise to launch this without the safety net of a simple HTML site. The road runner site had the advantage of knowing all its target users were using broadband and were thus likely to be using high end computers. Ford's users are a different kettle of fish altogether.

But it's also not that bad, it's going to run on most computers and it's a fairly simple design, which makes me wonder why it runs so 'hot'. And the design is lovely.

I really like it. It's a real risk Ford is taking and I think it turned out well. Design works and everything is very clear. Makes me glad FI are getting an office here in NYC so I can apply for an internship :)

The fordvehicles.com portal was built to perform on a below average machine, just as the Road Runner portal was. The Road Runner portal is quite larger in file size than Ford, but not all Ford customers have broadband. However this current release will be optimized from all aspects but it is currently designed towards a higher speed user.

Why flash?
Today our clients such as Ford / JWT, Microsoft and Time Warner, Road Runner, require an interactive experience to present to their customers, clients and visitors, which is seamless, modern and balanced. It must be flexible and gain the most from a high speed connection while being adaptable to a lower speed connection. It must be able to harness creative complex applications, in this case, the color viewer, 360 views, video tools and assets, all seamlessly.

The portal while using flash, is also using a special engine developed at FI to gain the most out of the users connection which dramatically speeds up the site experience and interactivity.

This portal could have absolutely been done in html. But not near to the quality, the performance and to the seamless user interaction flash can offer. Together with JWT, FI has accomplished what we feel is a step once again into the next generation internet and we will continue to optimize and evolve in order to deliver the best experience for the end user.

If you are using a mac, the site as all flash sites are roughly 40% slower when animating graphics only. This should be addressed with the upcoming flash 8 player.

This portal was a fantastic experience to design and develop together with JWT. Together we are going forward, we are listening to the client and to the customer. We plan to have more information relating to this project on our new site www.fantasy-interactive.com launching mid-late October.

very good design!

is it easier to update flash websites like this and RR?
is it easier to develop a flash application like these?

the site is great and people should be impressed...but all designers out there should take not of FI's public relations...FI's post on here proves the design is like any other business and you MUST SALE....and that is where I think they are great...good work

I dont see it as a risk, time is changing we are changing the "traditional" way is going to be push aside. I believe its part of evolution, with a combination of faster connections and marketing directors aiming for the young ones, its a smart move.

Quote:

---

very good design!

is it easier to update flash websites like this and RR?
is it easier to develop a flash application like these?

---

If you asked me I believe its not based on easy or hard, i believe it comes down to having an advantage. To be able to cover all your bases with compatibility while giving the user an indulging interactive experience.

ps. Look at the cars that are coming out, we have the Dodge Neon SRT-4,Ford Focus SVT, the Toyota Corolla Sport! for christ sake, i thought Toyota stopped with the GT back in 89. The market is targeting young crowd in all angles.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by junior_ab
I dont see it as a risk

---

I know a hell of a lot of people who hate 'all flash sites'
Now, if this is a non business site and users decide not to stay because of the flash, thats life. But we are talking about $20000+ products.

Don't get me wrong, Ford have done a forward thinking thing and it is great for designers that big companies are interested in flash applications, but it has to be backed up by html site with highend products like this.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by junior_ab
I dont see it as a risk

---

This is a huge risk for a company with such a wide user base. It's a smart move if you are only aiming at "young ones" with broadband connections but I think you'll find that's only a slice of ford's customer demos and this site is ford's gateway on the web, whether you're a kid looking for their first car, a grandmother looking for their last, or a farmer looking for a new truck.

If my mother had been presented with this site when she checked out cars online she would not be waiting for delivery of a new ford focus right now, that's just a fact. Sure it's my mother, but there must be literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people like her who won't use this site in the same way they would have used an HTML site, if at all. I showed this to her when I first posted it and her first instinct when things started flashing and loading was to get off it. Ford's UK site is poor from the point of view of a designer, but for users like my mother it's easier to use, despite its obvious clumsiness.

I've been to lots of user testing sessions over the last couple of years, and this is still a lot of people's reaction to seeing flash, not just older people either. It's the result of years of bad flash design, and will take a few more years yet for flash to gain more credibility. Companies like FI are giving flash that credibility, the Road Runner site is perfect for that, but I'm just not sure that a company like Ford is in a position to be so advanced.

Ford are taking a huge risk making this their do or die online presence. I'm all for evolutionary websites, and FI do great work, but without a simple HTML site to back this up they are going to be burning bridges.

Before anyone condemns me, I think it's a good risk, maybe not so much for Ford, but for web design it's a good thing. I don't know how this site will effect ford on the web and its customers, maybe they will gain more than they lose, I have no idea, but for flash and for web design this is a fascinating project and I envy FI for landing it (not that I would have known what to do with it if I had it!). It's a beautiful design, simpler and 'lighter' than RR, and the scripting seems solid.

I for one will be watching closely what happens here. I'm still a little unsettled by each section opening on a new page even though it provides some level of deep linking, maybe that's just because I'm only used to seeing amateur sites do that, but this is of course far from amateur.

There will be a html version ready soon. The priority was on the flash version as it caters for the majority of customers.
Aversion, you have excellent points there as usual.
Its vital for FI, our clients, to use flash (or sparkle) for the right reasons. The ironic thing is that when we design these projects, we try to make them feel like "html" to make them feel traditional, comfortable on first impression, so then we can slowly introduce users into a more impressive user experience.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by FI
There will be a html version ready soon. The priority was on the flash version as it caters for the majority of customers.

---

That's good, and I definitely think the flash site should be front and centre. I trust Ford/JWT have the resources necessary to find out what their customers will respond to. I assume the success of the focus and f150 flash showcases helped them feel comfortable with this decision.

Quote:

---

Ford are taking a huge risk making this their do or die online presence.

---

I don't see how a Fortune 500 company would take a risk and certainly not a do or die cituation.I'm sure you just dont use catchy sales tactics and bs your way to doing this project. You need proof, statistical data.But I guess thats where i was trying to go with this. Your mother will not go online to shop for cars regardless of how its presented.She will want to go personally to the dealer and make that $20,000 decision.

She decided, like a lot of other people which dealers to visit after looking at information online. She's perfectly happy using the web for research, such as car buying, but hates flash, like a lot of people.

If there will be a HTML back up to this site then I think that's the bases covered, but to only have a purely flash site as your only web presence is extremely risky. There's more than one company that's paid for big budget all-flash sites, that have been featured in this forum as cool, only to be replaced with an old fashioned HTML site shortly after launch.

Yes, big companies do a lot of research, as I mentioned in my post, they also get it very wrong sometimes. As I've made clear this isn't necessarily one of those times....

wow!

I think it's a great site.

I do have a pretty quick computer so it ran seamlessly for me...

Maybe ford should impliment some tracking into the site to see the average users fps?

I think I posed this question in another thread where Aversion gave me his/her list of issues with all flash sites.

And I said then, as I'll say now, someday someone's going to have to break free of this flash stigma for the web. I'm hoping that the technology the "average user" has for viewing the internet will progress to the point where interactive experiences aren't hard on their systems or don't take twenty seconds to view.

I applaud FI for trying to push the envelope a bit. There are always going to be people going "God, I hate all flash sites ... it's like, visually appealing and stuff ... I just want to look at a flat document" ... to which I would say "someone can fax you the brochure". But there is something to be said for keeping an html version for those people where it's nothing but the facts.

I've always been an advocate for having the initial page giving visitors the option of viewing a highly interactive/visually stunning version of a site or a flat "just the Facts ma'am" version.

Good work FI. Keep it up ... PLEASE!

Quote:

---

Its vital for FI, our clients, to use flash (or sparkle) for the right reasons

---

Is Fantasy Interactive already working with Microsoft's Sparkle animation program? I know that Microsoft is one of their clients. I wonder if its going to be the Flash killer Microsoft is hoping for?