Year
Services
The great snow-capped mountains. The open roads. The sheep that somehow outnumber you on every drive. New Zealand has this energy that makes driving feel cinematic. So when Toyota NZ wanted a refreshed website concept, it made perfect sense. A site that felt more in tune with the landscape, the people, and the future they’re building toward electrification, cleaner mobility, and a more human digital presence. Something modern, but still recognisably Toyota. Something that carried a bit of that NZ magic without turning into a tourism poster.
Project Story
In the drivers seat
I led the concept design, shaping the visual direction, refining the site architecture, and redesigning the navigation. The goal was to bring forward Toyota NZ’s identity in a way that felt both modern and familiar. Toyota had another brand, Lexus which they wanted to weave similar visual cues between both to create an effortless channel from customers moving through the brand's offerings.
Side quest
Untangling the global menu
If I’m buying a car, the last thing I want is to get lost on a website with no way out. The current way pointing wasn’t helping. So, like any good driver, I started by mapping every major point of interest on the site. From there, I built a full taxonomy grouping pages based on relevance and engagement, fixing vague labels, and renaming things for clarity and discoverability. I cross-referenced other automotive sites to keep the structure grounded in familiar patterns.
Once the taxonomy was solid, I moved into wireframing the global pull-out navigation. The requirements mentioned promoting offers to boost conversion, so instead of a basic menu, I designed something more interactive, a nav that surfaces imagery, recent promos, and useful shortcuts in context.
Outcome and learnings
Storytelling through simplicity
I rebuilt the structure from the ground up:
clean hero that feels cinematic without being dramatic
simple entry points to explore models
cards that balance product clarity and brand storytelling
sections that highlight NZ-specific programmes and initiatives
This 1 week project let me combine two things I naturally lean toward: clean, structured interface design and automotive storytelling. It wasn’t about reinventing Toyota, it was about giving their digital presence the clarity, personality, and modernity it was missing. A concept that shows what Toyota NZ could feel like with a sharper visual and architectural direction.
