AutoMK.com

Minisites, sitelets, microsites -- whatever you call them, they're now a part of just about every product launch, whether it's for potato chips or Porsches. True to form, with last week's reveal of the '08 Ford F-Series Super Duty, the Oval followed up with a dedicated minisite for the new ginormous trucks. Its primary navigation elements are a set of links across the top of the page, each of which correspond to a specific background environment that gets dropped behind the black Super Duty sitting front and center in your browser window.

Arrows to the left and right of the truck let you cycle through the environments, which are a highway construction site, a boat ramp, a port facility/shipping terminal, a farm, and a field. Those environments serve as portals into detail pages related to power, capability, innovation, exterior, interior, and configurations, respectively. The detail pages generally feature a primary photo with rollover tabs that open extended explanations of the truck's features. In some cases you get slightly different content, such as 360-degree spin-o-rama views.

Finally, an 'Extras' link lets you register for email updates and has a set of desktop wallpapers available for download. This, along with the rest of the site's content, will likely evolve over time to keep things fresh over the year leading up to the trucks' arrival in showrooms.

I have to say that I found myself spending a lot more time playing around on the site than I thought I would. I normally get fed up with Flash-heavy sites like this after a minute or two, but the Super Duty site is fast, visually interesting, flows well and draws you in once you start clicking around. That's the whole point with any site, so credit Ford's interactive agency with a job well done.

Thanks for the tip, Ryan