In the 19th century, John Moses Browning (1855-1926) inherited the gun store of his father and turned it into small gun making workshop employing seven people.

An innovative gunsmith, young John filed his first patent (Nr 220.271) at the age of 23 and went on to license his designs to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the Colt Company, the Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Belgium and other manufacturers.

Selling licensing rights allowed Browning to focus on designing rather than manufacturing and marketing. Released in 1907, his semi-automatic pistol became the Ford Model-T of the gun industry, with over 10 million sold. In the process, Browning became the generic name for this kind of handgun. In the last decades, Browning has also explored opportunities to stretch its innovative brand to adjacent categories, such as tennis rackets and golf clubs, with limited success.

The North American website being such an easy target, the focus of this review will be put on Browning International instead. The latter benefits from the use of Flash animations and actually displays the Browning logo, a detail left off the North American version.

The site's architecture relies on three horizontal frames, which is aesthetically pleasant but, in addition to the splash page, might handicap the work of some search engine's spiders. However, this does not seem to be a priority for Browning, since most of the pages appear not to include keyword tags.

Located at the top, the Flash-based navigational menu triggers well-chosen banner pictures that cap the site. The menu design and selection is nonetheless rather plain and lack in terms of usability. For instance, the Site Map and Copyright information are given a disproportionate front stage position that distracts from buying Browning products and their sister brands Winchester and Miroku.

Moreover, the organization of the menu selection is equally questionable, with the following noteworthy examples: Jobs located under News rather than Company, Catalogues shelved under Services rather than Products, Wallpapers hidden behind Gadget (singular), and the remarkable product inventory database buried… somewhere.

There is something ironic in having hunters as a target, i.e., a marketing target, but it certainly provides for great imagery. The symbiosis between hunting and the wilderness allows Browning to tap into an endless picture bank of open space and dawn lights. It superbly enhances the inherent quality of the product, essentially crafted out of steel and wood – two noble materials. This strategy allows Browning to tame down some negative stereotypes that the collective consciousness may carry, while delighting its market audience.

Browning has a great story to tell, superb imagery to leverage and probably among the most passionate gunsmiths to back its brand. However, its website's poor usability is such a strong negative factor that it can only slow the brand's development among web users.