The Client
Electron Beam Welding LLC is an Orange County-based job shop that serves aerospace, defense, electronics, scientific research, medical, and general manufacturing companies on the West Coast, and industrial and commercial manufacturers throughout the United States.
Founded in 1966, EBW designs, performs, and tests welds to meet highly precise qualifications. Their work has appeared on a wide range of NASA and Defense Department projects, and the company recently upgraded its capabilities by investing in leading-edge equipment.
The Project
As awesome as their line of work sounds (Welding! NASA! Lasers!), EBW’s website was far from exciting. The homepage was boxed in and cluttered with too many links. The site’s message was muddled with technical language and didn’t offer a consistent path for users. And the images were outdated and in need of a refresh.
With the company’s 50-year anniversary in the rearview and a leadership team ready to move into the future, it was time for a totally new website.
Design
EBW’s new site really came together when our designer incorporated new photos shot by Jon Haverstick, our photography partner. We used a minimal palette, relying on negative space and a few splashes of color so that the images and content were the stars of the show.
Small flourishes like icon animations and hover-responsive links also give the site a polished feel that was missing from the previous iteration.
Content
We approached EBW’s content with one simple mission. Actually, simple was our mission — we wanted to distill EBW’s message to its core. By creating a clear navigation menu (see image below) and clear conversion paths, we developed a site that would appeal to visitors visually and engage them through compelling content.
Our mission of simplification extended to the content on each page as well. By using the Salient theme in WordPress, our content and design team worked together to break the site’s technical information into modular, digestible sections that would be easy to consume on smartphones and desktop computers alike.
The Results
Electron Beam Welding’s new site looked nothing like the previous version, in the best possible way.
New full-width images throughout the site highlight the work the company does, as well as the people that do it. Simplified content makes it easier to find what you need and get in touch with the business to start a new project.
The EBW team was a pleasure to work with and they were very happy with their new site. We wish them all the best and another 50 successful years — at least!
