Web watch: we review what’s hot on the net

20 December 2005

AUDI’S Q7 will be in quite a fight for corporate business next year, with over 25 SUVs on offer during 2006.

So its microsite will be very important for driving up pre-launch interest.

‘Start the Q7 experience’ and the pumping electronic soundtrack, plus movie, will load up and the sleek SUV will spin round and land in one fluid motion.

It’s all about style on this site. Each section loads up with black and grey lines zooming across the page. The dark colour scheme and the sheer slickness of everything gives the feel of a secretive governmental department.

Navigating around isn’t overly difficult but, due to some of the screen layouts consisting of several different windows, it might confuse some. If in doubt, click on the Q7 logo in the top left corner to return to the homepage, or use the bottom horizontal menu.

The ‘performance’ section of the site has lots of floating Q7 ‘innards’ and explains some of the more technical information about the SUV.

There is a lot to get through on this site. Each section loads up a movie and after a thorough look around the site, users are most likely to skip past every intro that is thrown up. It can get quite annoying.

A part of the site which really stands out is the interactive showroom (found on the homepage). A virtual visit can be controlled with an innovative overlay menu.

Through this, users can choose interior and exterior colours, as well as rotating the interior or exterior of the car by 360 degrees. Several ‘hot spots’ appear all over the Q7 which, when clicked on, elaborate on points of interest.

It all works in a similar way to the Focus ST mini-site. They both showcase the high standard of web development that manufacturers are now investing in for new models.