Brill Publications

At first I thought Brill Publications had a fun interactive website, but it turned out to be confusing and difficult to navigate. First of all it is not immediately obvious what Brill Publications sells or offers. It seems to be for writers of some kind, but it was not until I explored for quite a few minutes did I realize that they sell products that people would actually buy such as merchandise with fun quotes or sayings on them.

You can tell they really wanted an interactive and unique experience, but you can't appreciate their creativity if you can't actually navigate the site. The user has to take "elevator" rides to different floors with different activities. The gift shoppe and My story floors seem to be selling the products. It isn't obvious what is clickable, and there is annoying background noise like you are in a crowded room. Also, you can't just quickly get to a floor, you have to ride the elevators. Even the quick start lift option seems to take you to different floors. Many of the floors are also "under construction" and non functional. The top floor just plays music, like the user is sitting on a roof top garden. I wasn't sure what the point of this floor was.

It also seems to offer writing contests and an online publication...but they would probably get a lot more business with a website that showed the products up front.

It would be fine to have such an interactive site as an option along with a more straightforward one. But the website really doesn't match the products they are selling...there seems to be no reason for "flash happy site".