Kawasaki Motors
Global Web Redesign
A global brand web experience with room for sub-brand personality.
Abstract
This project unified several distinct sub-brands under a new design system and content strategy, integrated real-time dealer inventory, and expanded to a multinational scope.
Deliverables
Information architecture
Content strategy
Content design
Role
Content designer
Information architecture
An all-new design system for the parent brand, still in place after over a decade.
Global region sites
Transform the business
Kawasaki.com needed more than just a refresh; it needed to establish new revenue, engagement, and training channels for a company operating in a downward-trending industry.
This enterprise-level redesign transformed Kawasaki's digital and in-dealer businesses, providing significant content upgrades for knowledge-hungry consumers while making use of (for the first time) dealer, inventory, and warranty information for enhanced sales enablement.
Creating sub-brand experiences under a parent-brand visual system
Between Ninja motorcycles, Jet Skis, ATVs, and racing-grade dirt bikes, Kawasaki’s sub-brands covered a lot of ground from a personality standpoint.
But for the digital business, uniquely branded microsites for each product category was ineffective. So we designed new components to bring more robust experiences into category and product pages within the parent Kawasaki experience.
Win on Sunday. Sell on Monday.
Race wins translate to sales, and Kawasaki has a decades-long reputation for championship performance in both professional and amateur series.
We gave racing its first significant web presence, not just with news and team info, but also with resources for amateur riders that other manufacturers didn’t offer.
Coordinating a complex back-end for new shopping tools & ecommerce
Kawasaki sells vehicles through a vast network of independent dealers, most of whom retail for multiple brands. We coordinated through a dealer leadership committee to create an integration to pull real-time data about dealer inventory, greatly easing the shopping burden.
A similarly complex web of providers comprise Kawasaki's network for apparel, accessories, parts and other retail goods. For the first time, we were able to offer direct sales and open a new revenue stream.
This allowed us to create customizers for vehicles in categories where accessories are key to driving sales, like with all-terrain utility vehicles that are frequently used on job sites and large properties.
Outcomes
A global enterprise and dealer network with as much diversity in offerings and communications as Kawasaki presents a massive challenge in designing a global web presence with both marketing and commerce functions.
It's a testament to our success with all stakeholders that the systems and structures, both front- and back-end are still in place and largely unaltered over a decade later.
Credits
- Creative director: Mike Berg
- Lead UI designer: Brett McMillin
- Interaction designer: Erick Correa
- Designer: Jake Parrish
- Technology lead: Darrin Jioras