MetalTek

MetalTek International is a metal casting manufacturing specializing in high temperature, severe wear, and harsh corrosive environments.

The Situation

MetalTek came to Northwoods with a lot of website content, but that content lacked organization, resulting in user confusion.
Pages were missing clear calls to action to help users naturally flow through the website.
The site design also needed a fresh, modern look.

The Solution

Northwoods consolidated the site’s information architecture by reducing the number of pages displayed in the utility and main navigation - almost by half. Drop-down navigation was added to help users get to specific content more quickly.
Page content was given more structure and division to help visitors easily digest it.

The Design

MetalTek’s previous color palette didn’t include royal blue. Instead, it featured grays and yellows. Northwoods designers added a royal blue because of its versatility and ability to inspire trust.

The royal blue also works well with much of their imagery, which already contains blue tones. Adding blue also helps the yellow call to action color stand out more.

One of the biggest improvements to the site design is the display of complex data. Their alloy data (shown below) is managed in spreadsheets and contains information on chemical composition, product specifications, mechanical properties, and more. Bar counters add movement to the mechanical properties, and color blocking and icons are used to clearly segment different data components. Conditional logic is used to account for data variations, so the design remains intact even when certain data fields are missing.

The Outcome

MetalTek’s new website design has a much more friendly, approachable aesthetic that makes large amounts of content easier for users to digest.
Improved content organization, stronger calls to action and an improved user experience has resulted in better user engagement by keeping users moving naturally through the website.