Industrial Website Design Industrial Website Design
Review: 3- 5 5 Industrial Website Design

Industrial Website Design

Rating
Best Practices
09 Dec 2018
12 min read
Update:

It’s very important for eCommerce businesses to be presented in the best way possible today – according to statistics, 75% of users weigh companies solely based on their website design. Users, in their turn, have finally learned to distinguish a good website from a bad one.

However, a lot of the design fuss seems to pass B2B websites by (both product developers and service providers). Manufacturers put their pride into their portfolio and not as much into a page that showcases it. That’s where marketing and branding tools come in handy – valuable content, technologically powerful pages and, of course, a catchy design.

Web design can be a lead generation tool in itself – in fact, it’s easy to prove. A study described in The Real Business of Web Design tells us that 94% of negative website feedback was connected to design.

To make sure your website will be perceived in the best light possible, you have to pay attention to the details – the placement of buttons, style of copy and visual. We’ve collected 14 tips and industrial website design examples that have been tremendously helpful to us and many other designers around the world. We hope that they will bring a lot of industrial website inspiration to you too.

Tips for manufacturing website design

1. Reduce the number of menu blocks to 7

If you sell hundreds of goods and dozens of types of products, putting matching menu blocks might feel like a good idea. However, the more the better is not the case when it comes to menu blocks. An excessive number of categories will only confuse users.

The solution: keep the number of menu blocks up to 7. That way you take advantage of free space, the categories are bigger and easier to reach on mobile devices, and the overall website doesn’t seem cluttered.

2. Use footer headings to separate text blocks from one another

If a header is not an option, you can put more blocks into the website footer section. For one, it’s bigger. Also, when a user reaches the footer (i.e. he scrolled through the entire website) that means the level of interest he or she has is undeniably high.

However, turning your footer section into complete chaos is not the right thing to do either. Otherwise, a client will struggle to do the most important actions – call, leave a message, or find the office address.

The solution: in order to separate categories, put them into blocks with headings and subheadings. Add a larger heading to attract visitors’ attention to the most important menu items and smaller subheadings to separate the categories that are of less significance.

3. Put the navigation items where people need them

We all want to be creative and stand out. It’s the whole point of website design for manufacturing companies. However, there are rules and guidelines that cannot be tampered with. Navigation is exactly the part of your website that should be somewhat conventional.

Users often get confused when websites ignore basics – a search tab in the right top corner, the contact information in the footer, the main menu in the header.

The solution: establish the structure of your website. You can take a look at competitors’ websites to ensure that users know where to look for a particular button.

4. Try to stay off the huge drop-down menus

Seven to ten years ago, it was cool to have a drop-down menu. These days, however, we’re simply tired of them. Messy drop-down menus might look like they save space – in reality, they are uncomfortable.

  • It’s hard to reach a needed menu item, especially from a mobile device.
  • It’s difficult for Google bots to crawl drop-down items.

The solution: try to avoid huge drop-down menus. Instead, create a few sidebars with links – which are way easier to reach for.

5. Make sure your logo redirects the user to the main page

Putting your brand logo on a website works great for awareness. However, it’s not the only purpose it serves. A brand logo can (and should) be a navigation item making it easier for a user to move through the website.

The solution: your logo should redirect the user to your home page. That way, website visitors won’t have to look for another way to reach the main page.

6. Leave buttons for main CTAs

Buttons are a powerful marketing tool as they attract attention. However, during the last few years, the level of trust regarding buttons continues its fall.

The solution: make sure that you reserve framed buttons for main CTAs only (sign up forms, order CTAs, etc). For other links, it’s better to use hypertext. Also, excessive buttons make the website look cheap.

7. Separate sidebars from the rest of the page

In order to make sure all the information on your website attracts attention, make some blocks different from others. Sidebars are an amazing way to structure and separate information.

The solution: add sidebars that are visually different than the body block of the page. The easiest way to do this is to change its color. Note, however, that it’s aesthetically more appealing to have all the sidebars in one palette.

8. Visually highlight the most important content

Your website can have a lot of blocks – some more important than others. It’s crucial that users don’t get distracted from the product and main selling points.

The solution: to make sure people remember a particular section of the website, help them by highlighting the most important information. Here are a few ways to do it:

  • Use bold text to highlight selling points
  • Add the image of the product to attract visitors’ attention

There are a few things you shouldn’t do, however: change fonts or text colors. It will create the effect of a patchwork and add to the atmosphere of chaos. These few tips will help you design the best industrial website.

9. Make one feature do one thing

When designing forms, it might feel very convenient to make it multi-functional – a registration form, a sign-up pop-up, etc. However, it’s not the best practice. Users will trust the website way more if they know for sure what is the goal of a particular web form.

Solution: Make sure to have each of your website features do a particular thing – not two or three.

10. Use broader color blocks or none at all

An industrial design portfolio website may lose in aesthetic quality simply because color blocks on the page are too narrow. It doesn’t look well. If you want to highlight a heading, there’s no need to apply a color to its background since the text of headings is already well-formatted in most of the websites.

The solution: if you want to highlight a particular block, put a color for the background of the entire block. That way you will reach your goal to separate blocks visually. Also, don’t forget to change the color of the copy if you add a new background color.

11. Keep even spaces between blocks

To make sure users give equal consideration to each block, it’s important that you keep the spaces between items even. If not, the page will look messy and chaotic.

The solution: the blocks of different sizes create an impression that all blocks are just additives to the header. To make sure all blocks are perceived evenly, use the same spacing around headings and copy.

12. Use one font and two styles

Too many fonts and styles make industrial design websites look unprofessional, amateur, and hard to read.

The solution: limit yourself to one font and two saturations (regular and bold, for example) to avoid chaos. It will help you create the best industrial websites.

13. Don’t write too much text into narrow columns

It’s clear that you have a lot to tell about your products. However, when adding a few columns to the text, don’t add too many lines of text. For one thing, narrow columns are extremely uncomfortable to read. It also makes the website look and feel cluttered.

The solution: narrow, centered columns are difficult to read. So, if you use them, add only a few lines of text.

14. Align text differently

The centering text on the page looks good. However, it only does so if you center the most important text. When a lot of your copy is aligned to the center, it is more difficult to read.

The solution: the only text you center should be the headline. Use the left align when it comes to body text.

Best industrial website design examples

For web design experts, it’s important to be inspired. They look for new ideas everywhere, constantly searching for the best industrial design websites. To make sure you never lack fresh manufacturing website design inspiration, we collected 6 industrial website designs that are stylish and modern.

1. Lear

Industrial Website Design 2

This website has slid into all ratings possible for the best manufacturing website design. Lear delivers aesthetics with a stylish main page done in three colors. Text-wise, the website is just as successful – there’s a slogan on the header and three panels with the latest news and stock value.

If you scroll down, you’ll see blocks emphasizing particular features of the product with short, to-the-point headlines.

Lear commands trust and respect just as a good manufacturing website should.

2. FireRock

Industrial Website Design 3

The main goal of the website is to make navigation patterns as convenient as possible. The first thing that catches one’s eyes is an additional menu section that helps you navigate the slider.

The website design is not very expensive though, you can tell it with one glance. However, it has everything a manufacturer would need, and even more (there’s a huge social media emphasis).

FireRock is nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, it’s comfortable to move through, and that’s exactly what makes it appealing.

3. Bet Vodka

Industrial Website Design 4

One word that comes to mind while describing the website is, above others, “modern”. The main page looks very stylish, with lots of cohesive imagery and web techniques used. Even the hamburger menu doesn’t make the page any worse.

Another notable feature of the website is using the minimalism trend. The small text fits well with images and is aesthetically very artistic.

4. Lolldesigns.com

Industrial Website Design 5

Lolldesigns is a local company with only one location. However, for a small business, the website looks amazing. The first thing Lolldesigns excels at is using white spaces. The user feels a lot of freedom when they come across the website.

There’s a lot of product imagery used, which is a strong selling point. Also, the color duo of white and yellow is extremely stylish.

5. BigRep.com

Industrial Website Design 6

BigRep, like a 3D printer manufacturer, needs to command trust and respect. The target audience is B2B which would make the usage of design gimmicks a little redundant.

Instead, BigRep has a healthy share of minimalism – the copy is precise and to-the-point, the heading font is thin and delicate. Minimalistic buttons make BigRep super discreet as well.

Final thoughts

B2B companies place a huge emphasis on their product range. While it is certainly important to showcase the products a company produces, a large chunk of effort should also be invested to build an industrial website.

  • Industrial web design is a powerful tool. Even for B2B companies, it can have a huge online branding value, reduce bounce rate, and loading time.
  • Navigation is extremely important since it either makes the website user-friendly or absolutely impossible to use. Reducing the number of blocks, avoiding drop-down menus, organizing the footer – all of these tips come in handy when working on website design.
  • The style itself is crucial. You can use saturation to highlight the main text, separate blocks, and try different colors to make your website stand out.
  • The quality of the copy is important but you have to think about the placement of the text itself. Different aligns, cohesive style, and separating copy between blocks can make it much more readable.
  • Bearing manufacturing website design tips in mind, it is always a good idea to look for inspiration. Knowing what works in design takes training. By monitoring industrial website design ideas and considering what makes a style a success or a failure, you will make your own design way easier.

A professional team of designers is a great choice for manufacturing companies. At Fireart.Studio, we create a stylish responsive industrial website design that is an immediate eye-stopper. Leave us a message – we’re happy to discuss your project!

Got a project in mind?

Reach out to us at Fireart, and we'll help you bring it to life

Your name
Email
Message

Our Clients

Over 200 brands have built their products with us at Fireart. Yours might be next!

Rolls-Royce
Limehome
Just Eat
FREE NOW
Bolt
TheoremReach
Pipedrive
Back Office
Toggle
Google
Atlassian
ByNext
Swisscom
JAM
dots