One step above a “Skip Intro” Flash splash screen
I went to to mazda.com to research the advantages of their rotary engine after the subject was brought up in conversation at work yesterday.
I am a car freak, so I know that one of the first things I am likely to have to do when visiting a major car corporation’s site is to pick what area of the globe I reside. The Mazda site is no different in this respect. The home page comes up and greets the user with the ubiquitous “Loading…” animation, which usually signals that a super-neato Flash movie is about to come on. I am not overly excited.
After waiting about five seconds the word “Complete” flashes on the screen, and the opening animation flows to present me with a map of the world with the names of the major areas in which Mazda is represented written across the top. My annoyance at this point is two-fold.
I am immediately peeved that I just waited at least ten seconds (once the “Loading…” and “Complete” messages have gone and the intro animation has actually presented me with clickable options) for a Flash movie whose sole purpose is to let me choose my geographical region. I shudder to think how much money Mazda shelled out in order to waste my time like this.
One need only look at BMW or Mercedes Benz to see the right way to send a user to their local site. These companies’ sites, like the cars the they make, are focused on thier users, while still maintaining a very high-end, graceful interface. Mazda should take their lead on both accounts.
My second gripe with Mazda’s useless Flash geo-picker is that I cannot click on my region in the map. Rolling my mouse over or clicking the images of the countries doesn’t do a thing. I must mouseover the text at the top of the movie, and then click my region. They spend all this money and time (including mine!) on this whizz-bang Flash movie, and they don’t even use the naturally occurring navigational metaphor sitting right in front of them. One can only guess that their design firm told them this was “out of scope.”
And to top it all off, their snazzy Mazda 6 doesn’t even come with a 6-speed transmission. I tell you, these guys really have a knack for missing the obvious.
