Each room has multiple scenes and the action in the scene only rolls forward when there’s sound. When it’s quiet, then it pauses and scrolls backwards. By changing the track, you can have the video stuttering all over the place. Words don’t do it justice, just go and play.

Screenshot from site

Post from: EveryJoe

Ikea Come into the Wardrobe

Automotive

Winner – Toyota FJ Cruiser, a Canadian site from Henderson Bas Nicely designed site, that strongly ties off-road adventure to the vehicle but it does nothing for me as it’s just a slow way of getting to the details about the model.

The People’s Choice was the BMW Relearn to Drive from Just Interactive. I’ve written about this before and is far more useful to me, with the option to attend the driving school and not just promoting a single product. But that’s just my preference – have all the product information in a format that’s easy and quick to get to and have the fun, flashy interactive stuff there, but in a way that does not obstruct information gatherers.

Beauty and Cosmetics

The winner was the Australian Lynx Effect Site from Amnesia Group; this site hits the same notes as all the Lynx/Axe adverts, treating women as objects and men as lads, but as always, does it well and with some style! Never sure how I feel about that – I appreciate the skills and ideas behind the ads but still hate them. The peoples choice was the international version od Nivea, a pretty comprehensive corporate product site, put together well with content easy to find. From a digital agency viewpoint it can sometimes be too easy to dismiss sites like this, as they can be deemed ‘boring’, but this one is well put together and meets purpose. It’s kept up to date with news and advice, so does provide fresh content regularly, to encourage people to come back

Consumer Electronics

The winner here was the Japanese site for Sharp Aquos from Hakuhodo I-studio. I have no idea what it was trying to tell me (although the info page tries to explain) but it had me laughing out loud with the fun music and graphics. The People’s choice was another TV brand, this time Philips Aurea, an unusual TV with its light show and with exclusive new content.

Food and Beverages

Here the winner is not from one of the big companies but from the California Milk Board. Get the Glass, from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is a visually glorious site that is engaging and fun. It’s not a product but a category they are advertising and from the buzz I saw at the time, it succeeded.

Retail

The Canadian Ikea mattress, from Trapeze / ZIG site won both awards in Retail. A surprisingly simple idea, advice on how to choose a mattress, presented in a fun, clean way.

Other Categories

Product sites won throughout lots of categories. Coke Happiness Factory from AKQA got the nod in Best Use of Animation – i love this site and the ad associated with it

Another site I’ve had so much fun playing with is Poke’s neverending site for Orange, which has sooooo much stuff in it. It won the People’s choice for Best Visual Design.

There’s a lot more there, a long, lovely list of what is good on the web, so go and explore.

(all screenshots from their respective websites)

Post from: EveryJoe

Webby Awards