Luxury car brands need luxury website design. The quality and attention to detail that customers have come to expect from a brand’s products should be evident across their service. Especially through their online presence.

Aston Martin is one of the best-known British car manufacturers. The brand combines their British heritage with luxury and speed in order to create an unrivalled car experience. We know their cars are at the top of their game, but what about their website design?

In this article, we’ll take a look at how they’ve created a luxury website that infuses a modern twist with the classic features of the brand. For luxury brands like Aston Martin, having a website that’s functional yet chic, accessible yet exclusive, is essential. The team at KIJO have years of experience in creating luxury websites that provide exactly that. So, we are expertly placed to offer their website design critique. 

Let’s take a look at how the quintessentially British Aston Martin brand has created a luxury web presence to prompt exploration.

The Aston Martin Brand At A Glance

Founded in 1913, the Aston Martin brand has become an iconic, global name. This name is synonymous with luxury, style, performance and speed.

Based in England, UK, the brand combines the latest technologies with time-honoured craftsmanship. It creates iconic cars such as the Vantage and DBS models.

Still manufactured in England and Wales, the Aston Martin brand has become synonymous with another British icon, James Bond. The Aston Martin DB5 debuted back in 1964 in the film Goldfinger. It has been the chosen car of choice for 007 ever since.

Internal changes in 2020 also saw the brand return to the world of motorsports in the shape of the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team. This marked a pinnacle moment in the history of British motorsports.

Aston Martin Website Critique by KIJO

Design Critique 1: The Homepage

Aston Martin’s homepage is interactive from the get-go. Offering visitors the chance to explore their latest car models with the use of expansive, interactive videos and graphics.

The clever thing here is that Aston Martin combines close-up clips and drivers-eye videos. This highlights the experience of an Aston Martin. They aren’t shouting about how great it is to drive their cars, they’re showing you.

Calls to action here include “Explore” and “Configure”, a theme that runs throughout the Aston Martin website. The subtlety of allowing users to explore and experience the various configurations possible with their models and services works far better than obvious sales calls to action (CTA). Particularly, for their target audience.

Scrolling down the homepage brings up features such as a quantifying brand purpose quote, the latest edition models and a link to the pre-owned Aston Martin collection.

The content of the Aston Martin homepage focuses on highlighting the timeless nature of the cars. However, it combines this with the innovative and new models ensuring the brand remains a stalwart of the luxury vehicle industry.

The final section of the Aston Martin homepage features the latest company news and updates. This section stands out from the rest of the design due to its stark white background. This contrasts against the darker colour scheme that the rest of the homepage adopts.

The overall impression given from the Aston Martin homepage is that this is a website to explore and interact with. It’s not one to idly visit. Perhaps this is a reflection of the cars themselves. In terms of our website design critique, this homepage certainly gets a thumbs up from the KIJO team.

Design Critique 2: Special Features

The key thing we noted during our website critique is that the Aston Martin website isn’t one to purchase from.

Aston Martin are an iconic brand and, as such, are able to rely on that status throughout their online presence. Their website isn’t there to sell you a specific model, it’s there to sell you the brand.

For many, the model comes second to the fact that they’re driving an Aston Martin. It’s a name that comes with prestige, something that couldn’t be clearer from the website.

We were big fans of how easy it was to find and explore their models though. Each top model can be accessed via the homepage, or the clever dropdown burger menu feature. Each model page provides a comprehensive breakdown of the car’s specifications. However, it leads with luxurious visuals and three key details (like top speed and power information). These are animated like a car’s dashboard.

Arguably what sets Aston Martin apart from some of its luxury car competitors is its heritage. This is a quintessential, British brand that has been loved, admired and trusted for generations.

This selling point is noted throughout the website but nowhere more so than on the dedicated heritage page: “110 Years in the Making”. Here, a side-scrolling carousel transports you through time,. It combines black and white photographs and text to depict the story of the brand in easy-to-digest chunks.

If you didn’t know how iconic the Aston Martin brand was through history before, you will once you’ve landed on this page.

Design Critique 3: User Experience

A journey in an Aston Martin is surely like no other. Smooth and sleek, fast and powerful and a journey through the brand’s website should be no different. So, does the user experience of their website match the user experience of their cars?

The main navigation menu runs along the top of the website, but only hosts 3 clickable buttons. These are Explore, Configure and the burger menu which drops down to reveal a larger menu. This is a clever way of ensuring the homepage and menu aren’t overcrowded with the mass of content the website has to offer.

Whilst the website has a vast array of content for visitors, the amount of text is kept to a minimum. Instead, almost every page is headed with a full-width video or photograph. These take over the entire screen with the option for users to explore further and scroll down for more content. This use of video throughout the website ensures the content is easy to absorb and effortlessly captivating.

Displaying their content in this way further ties into the website’s aim of encouraging exploration of their brand, rather than presenting visitors with streams of information. This feels sophisticated and confident; exactly what the Aston Martin branding wants to exude.

The homepage features a luxury take on a sliding header which showcases three key Aston Martin models for users to explore. Each model is depicted with a fast-paced video and graphics. These manage to replicate the experience and sense of driving an Aston Martin.

Whilst impressive, the combination of the fast-paced clips and the dark colour scheme may make the content hard to fully appreciate for users who aren’t familiar with content in this style.

If a user is visiting the website to enquire about making a purchase, then they’ll be directed to contact dealerships individually. There’s no price list or product listings. This helps create a sense of exclusivity and intrigue for potential and existing customers.

Design Critique 4: The Finer Details

If an Aston Martin car is the epitome of classic, British style then the Aston Martin brand’s website manages to successfully mirror this in the finer design details.

There’s no stock photography anywhere on the website. Instead, each image and video is chosen and edited with care to depict a pillar of the brand, a detail of a specific model, or a reflection of the brand’s status and heritage.

Whilst the homepage sticks to a predominantly dark colour scheme, feature pages like ‘Find a Dealer’ or the ‘Experiences’ page provide a direct comparison with stark white space filled with imagery.

The photography used across the website is of the highest quality. There’s also a mixture of coloured and black and white photographs. This helps to further highlight the long-standing legacy and tradition of the Aston Martin brand.

Design Critique 5: Mobile Optimisation

The Aston Martin website is just as good on-the-go as one of their cars. In fact, arguably certain aspects of their website work better on a mobile device than a desktop.

The autoplay videos on the homepage are clearer and easier to absorb when converted and optimised for mobile. Additionally, every image or piece of text has been appropriately adjusted to fit any screen size.

The burger menu is easy to navigate too. Here, users are able to select which model they want to explore. There are also 3D mock-ups providing additional guidance throughout the navigation process.

Experience the Status of the Aston Martin Brand

Driving an Aston Martin isn’t simply about travelling from A to B. It’s not an activity of convenience or routine. It’s an experience to thrill and admire and the brand’s website directly reflects this.

If the aim of the website is to leave feeling like you’ve experienced what it would be like to drive an Aston Martin, to understand the status and heritage, and appreciate the speed and power the cars can provide, then it’s a website that meets its aims and more.

As an iconic brand that has been revered for decades, there’s no need to use their website as a hard selling tool. Instead it’s a way to subtly showcase a constant in British luxury automobiles. The website invokes in visitors the satisfaction that driving an Aston Martin provides.

In a nutshell, it does exactly what a website for such a symbolic and recognised luxury brand should do. In terms of website design critique, the KIJO team are very impressed.

Do you want to create a luxurious website design like Aston Martin or an app for your brand that will inspire the feelings of status, exclusivity and quality? The KIJO team have the experience and knowledge to help you do exactly that. Simply contact us today.