When a building materials company redesigns its website, the change rarely makes headlines. Builders notice it only when they cannot find a spec sheet, or when a search that used to take ten clicks takes two. That was the standard set by a 2015 redesign in the wood products business: customers should be able to find the information they need in as few steps as possible. The same care that goes into designing luxury hillside homes that live as well as they look belongs on the digital front door of a product company, because every extra click is a cost and every dead end sends a buyer to a competitor.
The redesign added three features that look ordinary today but were forward-looking at the time: a sustainability news section, an industry blog, and an enhanced literature finder. Those three pieces map cleanly onto what building professionals still expect from a manufacturer site: fast document access, credible environmental data, and content that answers real questions. This article breaks down each piece, the design choices behind it, and the results a product website should produce.
What Builders Actually Search For
Before any redesign, a manufacturer should know what customers ask for. Requests cluster around a small set of documents, and most support tickets trace back to one of them being somewhere a user did not expect. A literature finder is only as good as the list of documents it exposes, so the first design task is inventory, not layout.
The documents that matter most
The list is short and stable across product categories. Specifiers, contractors, and homeowners all end up looking for the same handful of items, and each one has a different failure cost when it cannot be found.
| Document | Typical user | Cost of a failed search |
|---|---|---|
| Spec and data sheets | Architect, engineer, estimator | Alternate product specified |
| Installation instructions | Contractor, crew lead | Wrong install, callbacks |
| Warranty documents | Homeowner, general contractor | Disputes and lost trust |
| Safety data sheets | Jobsite crews | Compliance violations |
| Sustainability declarations | Designer, specifier | Green rating credit missed |
Warranty documents deserve special attention because they surface twice: once before purchase and once at claim time. A finder that hides the warranty behind four menu levels creates disputes that a one-click link would have prevented.
Where searches fail
- Documents buried four levels deep in the menu tree
- PDFs published without a searchable text layer
- File names that change between revisions, so saved bookmarks break
- Pages formatted only for desktop screens and unreadable on a phone
The fix is a finder that behaves like the sourcing tools spreading through the industry. Ford Pro launched LocateFordWorkTrucks.com as a dedicated tool for upfitted work truck sourcing, and materials manufacturers built equivalent finders for their own catalogs. The pattern is identical: one entry point, accurate results, and no menu archaeology.
Literature Finders: Search and Browse
The centerpiece of the redesign was a literature finder that lets customers search for quick, accurate results or browse by product without in-depth menu options. Both paths matter because users arrive in different states of mind, and a finder that serves only one of them fails a large share of traffic.
Search-first navigation
Search works when the user already knows the product family or document name. The finder has to tolerate partial terms, common misspellings, and trade names that differ from category names. Autocomplete suggestions rescue users who are close but not exact, and a visible no-results page with alternatives beats a blank screen.
Browse by product line
Browse serves users who are exploring, such as a homeowner who knows they need siding but not which series. A consistent taxonomy, using the same category names that appear on product pages, keeps the browse tree from becoming a second menu system that staff must maintain twice.
| Path | Best for | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Users who know the product | Fails on vague terms |
| Browse | Explorers and first-time visitors | Needs disciplined taxonomy |
| Hybrid | Most users | Requires both paths to be maintained |
Other suppliers ran the same playbook. When Southern Cypress gave its site a fresh new look and new tools, the goal matched the 2015 redesign: fewer steps between question and answer. The details differ by company, but the acceptance test is identical: a user should reach the right document in two clicks or one search.
Sustainability Sections and Industry Blogs
The second addition, a sustainability news section, reflected a shift in how products get specified. Buyers no longer accept a single green claim; they want evidence they can pass to clients and reviewers.
What a sustainability section contains
- Environmental product declarations and lifecycle data
- Recycled content percentages by product line
- VOC and indoor air quality data
- Third-party certifications with certificate numbers
- Energy performance ratings where relevant
The documents in this section get read by a different audience than the spec sheets do. Designers and specifiers use them to earn credits in green rating systems, so dates, test methods, and issuing bodies matter more than marketing copy.
| Content type | Who uses it | What it must show |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental product declaration | Specifier, green rater | Test method, date, issuing body |
| Recycled content statement | Designer, procurement | Percentage and source |
| VOC data | Indoor air consultants | Emission test results |
| Certification certificates | Contractor, owner | Certificate number and validity |
The blog as a service channel
The third addition, an industry blog, treats content as part of the product experience. Practical posts answer the same questions the phone line receives, and they pull in readers who later need the literature. A well-run blog also keeps the site fresh for search engines without depending on product page churn.
Design and care content does double duty. A post on how to make a new home look vintage with old-world character attracts homeowners who are not yet shopping for product literature, and those same visitors return for finish warranties when they start a project.
Cross-Platform and Mobile Readiness
The redesign explicitly targeted cross-platform compatibility, promising a site readable on various browsers and mobile devices. That was forward-looking for 2015 and is now table stakes, but the principle behind it has not changed: product data gets consumed wherever the work happens.
Where product data gets consumed
Contractors check fastener specs on a phone at the lumberyard. Architects open details on tablets in meetings. Crews read installation steps from a laptop in the trailer. Each context changes layout needs, and a site built for one screen fails the other two.
A testing checklist
- Download every document type on iOS and Android
- Check table rendering below 360 pixels of width
- Confirm the finder works without JavaScript
- Verify print styles for spec sheets
- Run the site through at least four browsers
- Test the finder with real search terms pulled from support tickets
The shift mirrors what happened in power tools. As cordless technology reached new milestones, the jobsite stopped being tethered to an outlet, and mobile websites untethered product data the same way. The information now travels with the crew, which is exactly what a finder should be designed for.
Measuring Whether the Redesign Works
A redesign is not finished at launch. It is finished when the numbers show that documents are found faster and support tickets about them are falling.
Metrics that matter
| KPI | What it tells you | Direction to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Documents found per visit | Finder usefulness | Rising |
| Time to first download | Navigation efficiency | Falling |
| Support tickets about documents | Content gaps | Falling |
| Mobile share of downloads | Jobsite usage | Rising |
| Bounce rate on the finder | Relevance of results | Falling |
Downloads per visit and time to first download measure the finder directly. Support ticket volume about documents measures what the finder misses, and mobile share of downloads measures whether the cross-platform work paid off.
Reading the numbers
Trend lines matter more than single readings. A redesign usually dips in the first week while users relearn the site, then should improve steadily over a quarter. Compare the same metric before and after the launch, not just month to month.
The same rigor applies to environmental claims. A data-driven look at retrofit versus new-build carbon set the standard for how honestly a company should present numbers, and a product site that publishes sustainability data should hold itself to that bar.
Practical Steps for Manufacturers and Builders
The 2015 redesign offers a checklist that still works today. The steps apply whether the site is being rebuilt or just cleaned up.
- Inventory the documents and measure how deep they sit in the menu
- Add a search finder before adding new pages
- Publish sustainability data with dates and sources
- Test every key page on a phone
- Track downloads and support tickets from day one
- Review the numbers quarterly and fix the top failure
Content keeps earning after launch. A tutorial on how to restore and paint a cast iron radiator for a fresh new look draws search traffic for years, and a well-built finder should earn the same long tail for the documents customers actually need.