Regional account director, North Asia, AKQA
Site: www.fiat.com.cn
The look of the site is neat and conventional.
The use of the navigation on the left is pretty standard and is easy to
use.
The site is quite pleasant and the use of colour in the navigation
denotes the element of fun.
The flash animation on the homepage could be further developed and used
in some other sections of the site to create more interactivity.
I would say that the use of pop-ups for the press releases is not
advisable.
This is because it means that users will have to deal with additional
windows.
With so many images on a page, it also means that the time it takes to
download is longer. Moreover, the quality of pictures featured is not
high.
Copy in the press section on the website is generally easy-to-read with
short paragraphs and supporting photos.
However, the one on the 2001 Shanghai International Car Show was too
'painful' to bear; too much information was stuffed into long
paragraphs.
All in all, the overall impression of the Fiat China website is still of
a brochure-ware type.
It's as if the manufacturer is trying to say something but in doing so,
doesn't seem to be able to leave much of an impression behind.
The site fails to communicate the fundamental brand essence on the
manufacturer and its various brands.
Hopefully, when the site is more complete its impact will be better than
it is currently.