X Shore electric boat website up for Webby Award
The ‘Oscars’ of the internet, the Webbys, announced the nominees for their 23rd annual awards on April 2 in New York.
The site of Swedish electric boat X Shore is one of 5 sites up for ‘Best User Interface’ in the People’s Voice Awards, the public voting section of the show. It’s quit an accomplishment considering the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences received 13,000 entries from 70 countries.
X Shore website put you in electric boat captain’s chair
The X Shore website, done by Swedish design house Oakwood Creative, employs the innovative concept of ‘putting you in the captain’s chair’ on its landing page. Instead of showing you what the company’s Eelex boat looks like, it shows the prow of the boat and how it would look for you as you navigate through one of three locations: Venice, Stockholm or Italy’s Lago di Garda, where a cheeky day sailor even cuts in front of you!
The text asks you to ‘Turn on your sound to experience the silence’ and you can move your mouse to ‘steer’ the boat through each of the virtual waterways.
It’s not surprising that the site is innovative and engaging enough to be considered at the same level as fellow nominee the National Geographic site. As we wrote a couple of months ago, X Shore founder Konrad Bergström is well acquainted with the tech world, being one of the founders of Zound, the company that brought the world Urbanears and Marshall headphones.
The Eelex Boats themselves – the 6500 and 800 – are very impressive. The handsome craft feature a ridged hull that allow for air insertion between the craft and the water, decreasing friction. The Swedish company claims the design improvements reduce energy use by approximately 35%, and that the boats can reach speeds of 40 knots.
The public first saw the Eelex design at the Düsseldorf Boat Show in January and boats can be customized and ordered on the site.
In related news, FansofXShore, a Swedish public company under formation has been granted the opportunity to invest in X Shore via the FundedByMe platform and network.
You can vote for the X Shore site on the Peoples Voice section of the Webbys site
