Case Study: General Filtration Website Redesign

Client Background

About the client

Now in their 8th decade, General Filtration has an extensive history of providing liquid filtration supplies and media for a wide variety of industries. Recently acquired by Vytal Filtration Technologies, the company remains and the forefront of expertise designing complete filtration systems for a variety of industries.

Began servicing customers in 1955
Engineer and supply parts for a wide variety of liquid filtration systems
Operate out of a 50,000 sqft warehouse in the Toronto area
Recently purchased by Vytal Filtration Technologies

Visit Website

The website turned out beautifully and exceeded our expectations. I would strongly recommend Leaf for any B2B website.

Cody Sabourin

National Sales Manager at General Filtration

Where We Started

The challenge

As a well-established business, General Filtration had relied primarily on industry connections and word of mouth to generate new business. However, the realized that their website – being almost 10 years old at the time – was in dire need of updating. Aesthetically, the website was not strong, and with several sections not functioning at all, it was time for a full re-build. But before that could be tackled, we needed to address problems within their company’s brand that had become very muddled over the years.

Inconsistencies with company branding
A visual design that lacks professionalism
A Home page with an overwhelming amount of content, yet little focus
Content architecture that hindered access to important information
A lack of any calls to action resulting in negligible leads generated
A disappointing user experience for mobile phone and tablet visitors
Difficulty making simple design and content changes in-house

How We Collaborated

Design process

1. Original website

General Filtration’s previous website had an extremely dated layout. There was no focus whatsoever and the Home page was essentially a collection of buttons that linked to all the various subpages.

2. Design brief

Much organization was needed to plan this project. It was determined that a re-branding exercise was required as a first step. Additionally, a complete product photography session was necessary to achieve the desired aesthetics.

3. Wireframe

Prior to any design work, a wireframe of the Home page was generated. This allowed the client to approve the overall page layout without too much time being invested in the design details.

4. Final design

Very minimal changes to the wireframe layout were made. The addition of the client’s refreshed brand palette and inclusion of new product photos brought the Home page to life.

The Results

Our solution

Complete re-branding

Beginning with a brand new logo and a revised colour palette, the new website resulted in a significant upgrade. Along with modernizing the brand as an innovative company, the updated layout provided users with a better method of finding the products and solutions that were most relevant.

Product catalog

At the heart of the website is the robust product catalog that outlines the majority of products that General Filtration sells. Organized by categories (and subcategories), the catalog is easy to navigate. Users can drill down into the details of a specific product to learn more about its benefits and specifications. Downloads are provided to allow access to product specification documents as well as safety data sheets. A connection between the applications and catalog sections of the website provide a method for specific products to be recommended for certain industries.

A custom product photography shoot was also commissioned as part of this build out. Existing imagery was of low resolution with inconsistent lighting and backgrounds. The updated set of product photos achieved a professional aesthetic for this important section of the website.

Enhanced search

With such a large amount of information available on the website, it was critical to integrate and on-site search interface. A custom search was developed to allow for finer control over how search results were presented. This solution also allowed for the inside of PDF files to be searched for keywords, which was critical due to the large number of product data sheets that existed.