Sometimes I come across major brand websites targeted towards consumers that I just don’t get. They’re hard to use, lack any type of branding, and don’t relate back to the product. What’s the thinking behind these sites?
Last month, we had the Skittles Social Media Experiment. At least in that case, I could see what their goal was.
Cheetos.com
This time, I happened across the Cheetos.com website. I saw the commercial for Giant Cheetos on TV, and wanted to see if they were for real. The reason being that I love Cheetos, and how could you go wrong with a GIANT Cheeto?
Supporting Browsers
First, the site is completely in Flash, and it took a minute to load on our T1 connection. After that, you’re greeted with a carousel looking thing with a bunch of TV screens on it playing video clips. At first I could not click on anything, and I realized the site only works on Firefox… no IE7 or Chrome support. When I re-opened it in Firefox, it “worked”, but that’s really a relative term.
Occasionally, a clown will walk by, a marching band will march across the screen, a man with Cheeto nunchucks will perform on screen, or a masked wrestler will scream. Um… okay.
Navigation / Interaction Controls
The internet, of all places, is where a lot of people have short attention spans. The reason being is users visit most website with a goal, and only in certain situations for leisure. It is important to provide intuitive controls and allow users to navigate easily and focus on your messaging, products, and content. The main problem with a lot of these types of websites like Cheetos.com, is that they are introducing new ways (often unintuitive) to navigate and interact. Do you want users to consume your content, or spend time trying to learn how to get to that content? Usability is often sacrificed on these type of websites.
It turns out the site is mostly a collection of games. The only mention of a “Giant Cheeto” is the “Giant Cheetos -Pet,” which doesn’t give me the information I was looking for. Ultimately, I give up after a couple minutes, which is probably a couple minutes longer than most visitors will spend on this site.
