Case study · Surface fabricator
Watermark Fabrication: a site sorted the way architects and contractors search
A commercial fabricator whose buyers are architects and contractors, each working in a different kind of building. We built a site sorted by industry, product and material, with a gallery of finished work and an expert one click away.
The results for Watermark Fabrication
Custom surfaces for commercial buildings
Watermark Fabrication makes custom surfaces for commercial spaces: quartz and granite countertops, solid surface table tops, shower bases, vanities and wet rooms. The work is made to order, in the configuration and color a project calls for, and it goes into offices, schools, healthcare facilities, restaurants and shops.
The people who choose Watermark are rarely the people who end up using the room. They are architects writing a specification, designers picking a material, and contractors pricing a job. Each of them needs to confirm quickly that this shop has done their kind of project before.
The challenge: one shop, six kinds of project
A hospital bathroom and a restaurant bar are both custom fabrication, but the person specifying each one cares about different things. Healthcare buyers think about cleaning and durability. A restaurant designer thinks about how the bar looks under lighting. A site that describes everything in general terms speaks to neither.
Fabrication is also a visual trade that is hard to judge from a list of capabilities. Buyers want to see finished rooms, and they want to compare materials before they call. Without that, the first conversation is spent answering questions the website should have answered.
What the new site had to do:
- Let a visitor find their own industry and see work made for it.
- Show products and materials separately, so a buyer can start from either.
- Put finished projects in front of people who decide with their eyes.
- Be usable by every visitor, including those on a keyboard or a screen reader.
What we built
A site with three ways in, by industry, by product and by material, because those are the three ways a commercial buyer starts a search.
A page for each industry.
Corporate, education, healthcare, restaurants and bars, retail and specialty projects each have their own page, reached from photo tiles on the home page. A school facilities manager and a restaurant designer both land somewhere written for them.
Products and materials, kept apart.
Showers, vanities, counters and table tops sit under Products. Quartz, granite and solid surface sit under Materials. A contractor who knows the product and an architect who knows the material can each start from what they know.
An inspiration gallery.
Finished installations are collected in one place with large photos, so a visitor can judge the quality of the work and collect ideas for their own project.
One clear call to action.
"Get in touch with an expert" is the first button on the home page. For custom work the next step is a conversation, and the site says so plainly instead of offering a generic form.
Accessibility checked.
Color contrast, keyboard access, image descriptions and form labels were reviewed against accessibility guidelines. That matters for a company whose clients include schools and healthcare providers.
A layout that works on site.
Contractors often look things up from a job site. Menus, photos and contact details were sized to work on a phone as well as on an office monitor.
How the project ran
Discovery
We asked who contacts Watermark, what they ask first and which projects the company wanted more of. The answers produced the industry list.
Structure and design
We settled the three-way navigation before designing anything, then designed the home page and one industry page for review.
Build and photography
We built the pages, sorted project photos by industry and product, and wrote descriptions for each image.
Accessibility review and launch
Before launch we tested the site with a keyboard and checked contrast and labels, then put it live.
The results
The site lets buyers qualify themselves. An architect working on a clinic can open the healthcare page, see comparable work and know within a minute whether Watermark belongs on the bid list. A restaurant designer does the same from a different page, without reading anything meant for someone else.
Inquiries arrive with more context. Someone who has browsed the gallery and read a material page tends to describe the project in their first message, which gives the shop something to respond to.
The structure also holds up as the company adds products. A new product or material becomes a new page in an existing section, not a rewrite of the site.
Services on this project
Website Design
Page layouts designed around how this client's customers decide and buy.
Website Development
The build itself: fast, responsive pages and the custom features the project needed.
ADA Compliance
Contrast, keyboard access and labels checked so every visitor can use the site.
In the same line of work? See how we build manufacturing websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
What other manufacturers and fabricators ask us about this project.
Usually both. Watermark's buyers arrive with either a building type or a product in mind, so the site has a section for each plus one for materials. If nearly all your customers are in one industry, product pages alone may be enough.
Show finished projects. Watermark's site uses a gallery and industry pages full of real installations in place of a catalog with part numbers. Photos of completed work tell a buyer more about custom capability than a list of options.
It should be accessible. Schools, hospitals and public bodies often expect it from their suppliers, and it makes the site easier for everyone to use. See our ADA compliance page for what we check.
Fewer than most people think. Three or four good photos per industry or product is enough to launch, and more can be added as projects finish. We can sort and describe what you already have.
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