Project: Xterra.com

Role: Creative Director, Information Architecture

The Nissan Xterra community was a unique group of SUV owners. They aspired to be rugged outdoor mavericks. In reality, they were weekend warriors with desk jobs. The advertising, created by Chiat Day\TBWA, encouraged the aspiration, not the reality. Chiat Day Direct & Nissan needed an owner’s affinity site that would connect enthusiasts and deepen their relationship with the vehicle and brand.

Our ultimate became the opposite of normal online communities. We wanted to create a site that encouraged users to get off the computer and get outside with their Xterra. The site would facilitate their adventures.		Our solution was to create a HUGE flash-based site that mimicked a desktop application. The interface was complete with “modules” that pulled in XML feeds with news articles, bulletin board entries, Xterra club contacts and a lot of automobile and outdoor information.
Each individual content module required different specifications. However, their usability needed to be simple, elegant and consistent.		I developed unique ways of accessing and refreshing module content. It was an exciting project that based me out of the iconic Chiat Day offices for over eight months.

The project cost over a million dollars and took a better part of a year to come to a conclusion. Once completed, however, a shake-up in the Nissan marketing department combined with a flash interface that didn’t comply with the designated download times resulted in a corporate political decision to moth-ball the entire project! The design, concept and execution were award-winning, yet the public never saw the results. I was, and am still, immensely proud of what became a dead project…

View a technical demo of all four “environment” interfaces.
Roll-over, then click on the four environment icons.
Once the application opens, roll-over the the drop-down menus.
The content modules would exist inside the “desktop” of the application interface.

Xterra.com Interface Demo