Digital manufacturing web design

Shapeways

Overview

Shapeways’ digital manufacturing services have enabled over one million customers globally to create more than 21 million parts, leveraging 11 different technologies and 90 different materials and finishes. Facing the need for a website redesign to accommodate the influx of enterprise clients, Shapeways collaborated with Atlantic BT for a manufacturing web design solution tailored to their specific requirements. Through Atlantic BT’s comprehensive Discovery and Design Process, they successfully overhauled Shapeways’ website, ensuring it was optimally structured to support their expanding business needs and enhance user engagement.

Project Type

Custom Website

Technology

WordPress

Industry

B2B

Our Process

Company Overview

Shapeways is revolutionizing the multi-trillion dollar manufacturing industry by digitizing the end-to-end manufacturing process. Offering top-tier digital manufacturing solutions, Shapeways serves over 1 million customers in more than 180 countries, catering to both enterprise and consumer segments. Their manufacturing processes include 3D printing alongside traditional manufacturing methods such as injection molding, urethane casting, CNC machining among others, ensuring high-quality production for a wide array of needs.

Before and after of the Shapeways home page.

The Ask

As the company has grown from a consumer, self-service, 3D printing brand to more mid-size and enterprise customers, it became difficult to balance the two customers on the website. Additionally, Shapeways acquired a few manufacturing companies to expand their verticals and needed a way to integrate them into the brand. Shapeways’ main goal was to grow their enterprise clients and their current design was too consumer-focused. To tackle their growing pains, they partnered with Atlantic BT manufacturing web design that would tailor experiences for both consumer and enterprise customer groups.

Our Manufacturing Web Design Process

Discovery

Atlantic BT assisted with both the Discovery phase and Design phase of the website redesign. As part of our discovery process we first talked to stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of their business needs. The majority of their profit comes from medium to enterprise clients for traditional manufacturing while a small profit comes from consumer one-off, self-service 3D printing jobs. We interviewed various users and created 14 personas, prioritizing the enterprise users in order to grow that user base.

Design

During the Design phase, we provided concept boards and a design inspiration and analysis to capture the new enterprise look and feel. We overhauled the website to reflect Shapeways’ new growth and appeal more to the enterprise clients.

Mobile view of the material showcase on Shapeways

The End Result

We restructured the website’s navigation to establish two distinct sections: an enterprise-focused version and a consumer-oriented marketplace. The new enterprise site underwent a comprehensive redesign, tailored specifically to cater to enterprise personas. This strategic segmentation allows the main site to directly address enterprise users, highlighting Shapeways’ extensive expertise in large-scale traditional manufacturing, while still preserving access to consumer services. This approach ensures a more targeted and effective communication with each user group, enhancing their overall experience on the website.