First off, I should tell you that I love football, and I also love design, well good design anyway! So I thought I’d bring you an excellent example of fresh web design for one of the biggest names in the business. Yes, they have deep pockets, but clearly, they understand the value that good design can bring to their brand.
The current revolution at Manchester City FC continues with the recent launch of their spanking new website, a tactical masterstroke on behalf of the club’s marketing department.
City have blown all competition out of the water with this fresh approach to the traditional club website, adopting a much more web-savvy design in an attempt to strengthen the brand and position themselves as a resource for entertainment and information, as well as signifying their ambition to become a major player in the football world.
The site has been designed to maximise usability and interaction, with the incorporation of a twitter feed, flickr account, and best of all, a customisable home page which allows the user to add or remove whole sections (widgets) as they like. All very web 2.0 - and focused for once, on us, the fans. Well, strictly speaking not me, as I support Leeds, yeah, yeah, I know…
For the fans, the Match Centre will provide a unique insight into City’s games, featuring live commentary, team sheets, and match/player stats, all beautifully rendered and clearly presented. The site draws you in, is very engaging and friendly, is easy to get around and displays quickly.
Rival club sites are overloaded with lots of text and banner advertisements, (see Manchester United’s current effort below), while City’s pages succeed with beautiful photography and well structured layouts, keeping information organised and easy to digest. The withdrawal of all advertisements is certainly a bold step, this has minimised unwanted distractions, yet also proves that City chiefs recognise the importance of clarity and style, and that it really is all about football and the fans, though let’s be honest, they really don’t need the money!
Given the amount of money involved in football, it is surprising that it has taken so long for a football club to produce a website of true quality. The new online look is a strong statement of intent from the hierarchy at City, and it will be interesting to see whether rival clubs take a similar route.
So, great website, shame about the club…
And if you’d like to get your website up to the Premier League, or just want to chat about football, drop me a line: sam@remedycreative.com
We are so proud
We shout it out loud
We love you Leeds! Leeds! Leeds…
Great blog post!
Also love football, alot (come on the ‘pool). I do like the new city website but my commercial brain tells me that the reason they have a lovely clean site, avoid of all advertising is purely that they have not yet renogotiated that sponsorship rights etc for thier shiny new site!
But then I am a cynical b@$$$rd and so it probaly is a great site. Also i suspect they are waiting for the release of Man City TV (you know its going to happen…!) before they get the big bucks spent on the advertising front… hmmmm, i just cant shake the inner cynic it seems.
As a design, the site is really good, delivers the infomation well and i wish Liverpool FC would have a look at this too!
H
Posted on: July 28, 2009 at 11:05 am