Mini Cooper’s Simple Web Design Allows Their Creative Car To Shine
Mini Cooper is an internationally known car manufacturer. Despite their worldwide appeal, they have created a website specifically for an American audience, Mini USA. It’s clear from the classic design of their page and their straightforward copy that Mini USA intends on reaching a wide consumer base.
The Mini USA page features an elegant, monochromatic design, with a plain white background and black font. The site utilizes a serifed typeface, creating a sophisticated aesthetic that counterbalances the quirky nature of the car.
And in fact, these cars do pop against the clean, white interface. The images themselves are crisp and bold, offering the perfect balance between simple minimalism, and exciting design.
The majority of the color on the page comes from the high-resolution photographs of their product, the Mini Cooper. The cars featured are brightly colored, contrasting with the simple color palette of the rest of the page, allowing for the products to stand out. Aside from the photographs, the only color utilized is red, used only three times to highlight important buttons on the homepage.
Similarly, imagery that lends itself to a simple, stunning interface includes the icons that sit on the menu bar and drop-down menus. These are also seen at various points of the site which aid in navigation, creating a mesmerizing user experience that leads users throughout the site even if they didn’t intend on making a purchase.
This design inspires and informs — you don’t even realize you’re being led to the checkout page thanks to its monochromatic nature and sophisticated color, layout and image balance.
The Mini Cooper Site Incorporates Engaging UI Elements Seamlessly
Unlike some other competitor automobiles sites, the Mini Cooper site errs on the side of simplicity and minimalism. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t know how to have fun with the integration of some engaging and interactive elements.
The site features multiple interactive features, beginning with a slider bar. This serves to immediately integrate the user into the website experience.
As the user scrolls on, more interactive options appear, including a graphic allowing you to design your own Mini. This encourages the user to become engaged in the process of imagining themselves with this vehicle. The interactive customization options create a sense of ownership while enhancing UI experience.
Users are met with this option immediately — the clean, straightforward platform lends itself to simple navigation and clear, actionable goals.
And when you land on this interactive page, the possibilities seem endless. Users start by choosing a make and model, and from there, they can customize color, engine, wheels, interior and more. And the simplicity here is inspiring.
Using carefully crafted drop-down menus, a colorful and clean sidebar with all the options and a bold product image, users are almost forced to engage — the design is so captivating that it feels like they don’t even have a choice. And they want to play around with this design.
The uniqueness of the car and its shape adds to this, compelling users to play around like its a toy car and not a real one. But it effectively gets users invested in the brand and more likely to continue onto their purchase.
Image-Heavy Landing Pages Position The Mini Cooper Brand As An Industry Leader
Mini USA’s product pages mirror the design and color scheme of the homepage, conveying brand cohesion. But this image-heavy nature also serves to promote its products in a way that is unique to the competition.
The Mini Cooper cars are works of art in and of themselves. They are shaped in a creative way and lend themselves to a fun and playful nature. Who wouldn’t want to see themselves driving this stylish and cool car down the road?
These landing pages are light in text, but heavy in photography, allowing their products to shine. The abundant negative space further showcases the cars, while contributing to a light, clean aesthetic. Larger text occasionally appears amid the pictures to highlight adjectives like “Legendary” or “Premium” that Mini USA would like the user to associate with the brand.
But overall, the text is minimal, letting the cars steal the show as they rightfully should. And considering images tend to be more impactful than text, it was a strong decision on the part of the designers. These cars are unique and innovative, as is this brand, and focusing on product shots further emphasizes this in a subtle and clean way.
Mini Cooper’s About Page Leads Users On A Journey
One of the shining stars of the Mini Cooper website is the About page that comes with a host of exciting and interactive information that lays down the groundwork for the brand while simultaneously encompassing the brand, its history, heritage and prestige.
At the top of the screen on the menu bar is a “Why Mini” section. Hovering over this clean menu tab opens up a drop-down menu of options that list out vital information about the brand, its cars and its legacy.
It’s a comprehensive setup that gives users a peek behind the scenes and does so in a creative way. It leads people on a journey of discovery that they can pick and choose to follow and interact with.
Not many car manufacturers go as in depth about their history and the make of their cars as Mini Cooper does. Most just give a brief explanation of their heritage and leave it there. But Mini Cooper takes it a step further by creating an exploratory journey that users can interact with.
And this comprehensive offering aligns the brand as one that’s transparent, approachable and knowledgeable. It knows that the information about car handling, size and shape are interesting aspects of its unique design, and aims to enlighten and inform.
And the overall layout is serene, using layered colors and bold imagery to captivate and stun. And it offers the perfect break between text and imagery that serves to keep the mood light and ease any unwanted stress or disorganization.
Mini Cooper’s Prestigious Automotive History
Mini Cooper is a British-owned automotive marque. And it’s a brand that’s been owned by BMW since 2000. The brand’s sole focus now is on making miniature-sized sports cars — and it has been ever since its acquisition.
First introduced in 1969 by carmaker British Motor Corporation, this brand sells cars worldwide.
When you think of Mini Cooper vehicles, you probably get some major hippy vibes. And that’s because of its popularity and prominence in the 1960s and its symbolic nature. And in 1999, the car was named the second most influential car of the 20th century, with first place being the Ford Model T.
Today, this popular car brand is known for its unique shape and size — and it’s certainly still as popular as ever.
According to the brand:
To put it simply, driving a MINI isn't like driving other cars. It's why there are thousands of testaments online to its world-famous, razor-sharp handling. Some people equate the incredibly responsive ride to a roller coaster; others, a go-kart. Whatever the truth, it's the performance most people expect from a high-powered sports car. Sans the hefty price tag. From the very beginning, MINI took the automotive world by surprise by pushing all four wheels to the corners – which gave every MINI incredibly precise and unparalleled handling. Our world-class engineering team developed an award-winning TwinPower Turbo engine – the perfect complement to a MINI’s world famous handling. Dynamic Stability Control can help make anyone a better Motorer by automatically applying selective brake pressure or engine power to help you stay in control. Choose from Sport, Green, or Mid Mode settings to emphasize performance, fuel-efficiency or a perfect balance.
Mini Cooper is a powerful and influential brand with cars that speak for themselves. And in their website design, they make that extremely evident.
Mini Cooper Perfectly Balances Simplicity & Creativity In Their Online Platform
The Mini Cooper site is a clean, monochromatic and engaging website design that playfully and effectively balances both simple and dynamic design elements to create a user journey that is unique and an overall user experience that steals the show.
Mini USA utilizes an understated website design to allow their product to remain the center of focus for the user. The interactive features and navigability of the site encourage users to continue exploring other pages, reducing bounce rate and engaging customers in the Mini experience.
The ability to customize your own Mini is also a captivating feature that pulls users in and aligns the brand as one that’s cool, modern and fresh. It also shows that the brand knows what its users want and will do what it takes to give that to them.
This is a clean and simple design with minimal text and an emphasis on imagery. But overall, its simplicity is a refreshing change from the bombastic and overly cold designs that other automakers tend to incorporate. Check out the innovative Mini Cooper logo design.
This website leads users on a journey that leads them to the checkout page with ease.
