Xbox.com
Microsoft
In October 2010 Microsoft launched Kinect, a new controller-free gaming and entertainment experience for the Xbox 360 video game platform. In the past, Xbox 360 has mainly been a console for the core gamer, but with Kinect, Microsoft started to develop the Xbox brand to better relate to families and less-serious gamers. As Xbox.com is the main digital marketing destination for the brand, Microsoft wanted to completely redesign the site to better fit their new target audience.
The new site is restructured and simplified to better inform new consumers about the entire Xbox experience. The homepage is designed to showcase inspiring large promotions and to quickly launch all user types into their unique journey.
The primary navigation reflects the natural order (from left to right) to learn about Xbox and what you can do with an Xbox console. "Experience Xbox LIVE" demonstrates the value of the entire Xbox ecosystem enabled through a Xbox LIVE membership. "Xbox 360" targets users that are sold on the Xbox experience and are ready to choose their console and accessories. "Games and Downloads" allows users with consoles to find and download games and related content. "Inside Xbox" hosts behind-the-scene videos, blog entries and forums for more immersed users. Finally, "My Xbox" allows fully immersed Xbox LIVE members to manage their accounts.
The design team's main tasks were to gather requirements from different US and UK Xbox stakeholders, restructure and simplify the old site content, develop a new information architecture, create a template system to allow all regions to populate and update content, and finally create designs for key pages such as homepage, landing pages and console detail pages.
Credits
Work by Marie Hartmann for AKQA, in collaboration with Kim Laama, Allison Behr, Elizabeth Tervenski, Akira Takahashi, Jimmy Soat, Sunjin Kim, Matt Boncek, Misha Cornes and Clayton Lee.