What you’ll read: In 2000, LEGO was already starting to build their online presence. See what they’ve created online in the years since.
What started as a small wooden toy company in the 1930s has, ninety years later, exploded into a globally-renowned entity spanning multiple industries. On top of their world-famous building blocks, Lego’s collection of products include video games, movies, books, and even clothing.
If you’ve been following our Wayback series for a while now, you’ll notice that this is the first kid-friendly brand we’ve covered.
With that in mind, let’s have some fun as we dig into the history of Lego’s website.
Lego.com in 2000
Let’s start way back in the year 2000…
The first thing to note about Lego’s website, even back then, is that it’s made up of a number of thematic microsites.
At a time when many other retailers were struggling to put together a single cohesive online experience, Lego had already created numerous immersive experiences for their youthful audience members.
In addition to these microsites, Lego.com also offered a ton of more universally-branded immersive content and experiences:
Check out the sidebar: From multimedia and downloadable content, to user-generated stories and interactive quizzes, Lego’s website provides endless hours of entertainment even back in 2000.
There’s also an adult-focused side of Lego.com, as well.
This more “formal” site content aims at keeping parents and educators informed with regard to:
- Using Lego products for educational purposes
- Additional services Lego offers to both children and adults
- How they can get involved in Lego’s initiatives
As for ecommerce, well…the seeds have been planted, in two key ways.
For one, Lego’s website offers information regarding bulk orders:
Still, customers can’t yet actually purchase bulk orders online.
The other pre-ecommerce area of the site is the “Lego Finder.”
Here, customers (and/or their parents) can navigate Lego’s product catalog, narrowing their search by age range, theme, product type, and more.
Though the website does not yet allow online purchases, its product pages preview of what’s to come:
This early version of Lego’s website sets the stage for what it would become in the future. As you’ll see, it all just gets better and better with every evolution.
Lego.com in 2005
By 2005, Lego.com had taken on a cleaner, more organized appearance across the board.
As for site content and experiences, Lego gives us more of the same — and we mean that in a good way.
Sticking with the microsite approach, Lego packs each section with content ranging from building instructions to thematic lore.
Each microsite gets individual attention from Lego’s creative team, with each having its own unique, thematic appeal.
Downloadable content (e.g., wallpapers, videos, games, etc.) keep kids engaged and entertained — even when they’re not browsing Lego’s website directly.
The adult side of Lego’s website — now dubbed “LEGO Educational Division” — provides activity guides and other helpful content caregivers can use to create engaging experiences for their kiddos.
As shown above, Lego’s product category and product pages are well organized, informative, and both kid- and parent-friendly. And, of course, each makes it easy to add items to your cart to begin the online purchasing process.
So far, Lego’s team has managed to improve pretty much every aspect of the company’s website.
Let’s see if they can keep it up.
Lego.com in 2011
The first thing we noticed about the updated homepage is the backdrop (which actually rotates through a variety of themes and scenes). While the homepage’s content and makeup remains relatively unchanged, this adds a bit of immersion to the experience — while also packing in additional content via carousel.
Much of what we’ve been raving about so far is still intact, and has continued to evolve over the years.
Microsites are evermore tailored to specific audiences and age groups, and arepacked with engaging content and experiences.
Unfortunately, many of them are also heavily reliant on the now-extinct Flash, so we’ll have to use our imagination here.
Similarly, Lego continues to offer downloadable and printable content, games, and other digital activities.
Again, this applies to every product category in Lego’s catalog.
Parent and educator sections have been split up, and provide more value than ever:
The most impactful improvement is felt in Lego’s increased focus on community and creative interaction.
Lego’s Digital Designer tool and its DesignbyME initiative prompted fans to create their own Lego projects — and share them with the online community.
The Lego Network acted as a branded social media hub, while the site also provided messageboards for users to chat on.
And, once again, all of it is executed incredibly well, showing a clear dedication to entertaining and educating both children and adults alike.
Lego.com in 2017
By 2017, Lego’s website had undergone a pretty significant, modern makeover.
More than just a modern look and feel, Lego’s revamped site shows a modern take on what it means to be the dedicated company they claim to be.
The parent microsite, for example, has been rebranded as Lego Family. As in previous iterations, this section is all about helping caretakers give their little ones myriad experiences that engage and challenge them.
The educational side of Lego’s site shows a huge focus on digital education and STEM-centered activities.
This aligns with the ongoing shift toward math and science in childhood education — once more proving Lego’s ongoing dedication to the modern child’s evolving needs and interests over time.
Product category and product pages are a bit hit or miss at this point. While some provide the expected immersive content and experiences, others are pretty simple.
In fact, you might notice the above product page hasn’t evolved all that much from the previous iteration.
The biggest improvement at this point, though, is the addition of Lego Life.
With Life, Lego takes its branded experience to the mobile world — once more showing a huge focus on creativity and interaction. Through the app, users could:
- Enter creative community challenges
- Share their homemade projects
- Create “Minifigure profiles” to emerge themselves in thematic lore and experiences
It’s worth mentioning that these more interactive experiences are met with child-focused guides on internet safety and the like. Similarly, Lego’s policies prohibit actual people from appearing in any posted images — all but ensuring the safety of the children they serve.
Lego.com Today
We don’t have too many reservations in saying that Lego’s website has essentially been polished to perfection.
The first thing to notice is the more intentional divide between the ecommerce and the entertainment side of Lego’s website.
The “main” part of Lego.com has the modern appearance we’ve come to expect from today’s top ecommerce brands.
That’s a lot to unpack, no?
Starting with a focus on design, we’ve got:
- Longform, scroll-based homepage content
- Carousels to pack content and calls-to-action throughout the page
- Strategic use of color and whitespace to break up content
- Promotional headers and navigational sidebars to enable focused browsing
As for product-related content, the team at Lego has completely outdone themselves.
Need proof? Take a look at the depth of this product page.
Lego’s ecommerce presence is more powerful than ever before — and the company’s recent 46% year-over-year increase in online sales is proof positive. Coupled with the brand’s many community based initiatives — from Lego Life to its Rebuild the World program, and much more — we have every reason to believe that Lego will continue providing an immersive and valuable online experience for years to come.