Follett has spent more than 6 decades carving out their spot as a global leader in ice and refrigeration manufacturing, but their existing website was outdated and fell short of their need to convert browsers to buyers.

Create a modern, easily browseable experience that puts user-specific needs front and center

Provide quick access to details on the firm’s products, services, and tech resources

Inspire buyer confidence in Follett as a leader in a crowded global market— Create an even stronger foothold in the competitive foodservice, healthcare, workplace, and life sciences ice and refrigeration verticals

UX Design

The need to generate leads for Follett’s four defined audiences shaped our approach to a sophisticated new design.

On the homepage, we ask users to immediately self-identify within one of the industries and then explore solutions that match their specific needs. We then help them find the right products with a lookup tool that enables easy navigation and quick access to brochures, technical documents, videos, specs, and pricing sheets (in both euros and dollars). It also eliminates irrelevant product options, even when buyers lack deep technical knowledge about the equipment. After users compare options based on in-depth detail pages, the tool prompts them to contact the company, with leads routed to the right contacts based on their market, use case, and location.

Because equipment service and support is top of mind for Follett’s customers, we added a clear tech support CTA to the homepage. This links to a service agent lookup tool that lets users identify a cluster of licensed providers within their ZIP code, then drill down to see locator pins within their general area, followed by exact addresses and contact information.

To serve Follet’s large European customer base and a manufacturing facility in Poland, we built multilanguage functionality to meet the needs of these audiences. While the site defaults to English,  an automated geolocator makes alternative language recommendations — or lets visitors self-select their preferred language to view content that is converted via Google Translate.

OTHER KEY UPGRADES:

User Testing

Mockup user testing helped us identify the new site’s potential sources of friction and confirm that it would be intuitive to use and easy to navigate. The testing targeted two audiences: those familiar with Follett and their current website, and others not familiar with the company at all. Using first click testing, we asked participants to complete real-world tasks via the website mockups, capturing where they click to accomplish each task. Using the insights gained by tracking their decisions and the amount of time needed to make them, we improved our designs accordingly.

Visual Design

In addition to creating new modular design components and a lighter, more inviting color palette, we applied updated typography and styling that reflects Follett’s reputation for precise products that work exactly how customers expect them to — reliably over time.

Development

With Follett’s addition of a new health sciences division, Vector Lab Products, we created a stand-alone customized WordPress site to help the firm leverage emerging trends in this field — most importantly, the need to quickly supply medical-grade refrigeration solutions for COVID-19 vaccines.

Working to a quick timeline, we followed the Follett model by creating an intuitive user journey from the home page through informative products, services, and support landing pages, to smartly organized product-specific lists and detail pages that direct users to representatives to complete their purchase. The CMS also allows Vector’s content team to make quick changes to pages and product listings as needed.

From the start, the site was built with future expansion in mind, including full e-commerce and future shopping cart functionality in place and ready to be activated when the client is able to fulfill those orders.