After more than a decade of designing some of the world’s most beautiful cars, Henrik Fisker knew that he could do better, that the whole industry could do better. So when he started designing the Karma, he threw convention out the window. He encouraged those around him to think of different, more sustainable ways to do things. And when they brought him those ideas, he never said no. Instead, he said, “Let’s try it.”
The automotive industry is one of the slowest to embrace change. Things are done “a certain way” because, well, that’s just how they’ve always been done. The same can be said of automotive websites. Full of stats, facts and specs, most of the sites we saw lacked the emotion the driving experience invokes when we get behind the wheel. So we set out to change that.
Much like Henrik Fisker’s approach to designing the Karma, our work for Fisker started with throwing away convention. We created a non-linear website that allows people to scroll both vertically and horizontally to discover more about the car and the company. And, because our target was higher-income males that primarily use iPads to browse the Web, we designed the site for that experience first and then seamlessly translated it to desktop and mobile. Full-screen imagery with bite-sized stories explained features in a way that was interesting, engaging and relevant to the Fisker “Onward” brand messaging. It also happened to be the first Web-based touch site in the luxury automotive category.
