Iron Planet - Responsive Website

 

Overview of Iron Planet Website

Iron Planet is the eBay for big machines, selling millions of dollars of used heavy equipment, trucks, government surplus, and more through online auctions. They came to us needing help with their brand and website, but they were not sure exactly where to start. We started by digging into their data, to find out which elements of the site needed to be addressed first, as the internal development team was only available for a set duration of time.

 

ROLE
Creative Director, Vega Project

SCOPE OF WORK
• Brand Refresh
• Web Site UX & Visual Design
• Copywriting
• Style Guide & Templates

Gaining Clarity and Developing a Strategy

 

I started with stakeholder interviews, and facilitating working sessions with the executive team going through a series of exercises to gain insights and create alignment around:

  • Who IronPlanet was and their reason for being.

  • A deep understanding of their customers, and what IronPlanet solved for them.

  • IronPlanet’s short-term, and long-term business objectives, and prioritizing what we could do in the time allotted that would give them the biggest impact.

 

The outcome of these sessions and studying the shopping data from their current site lead to 3 priorities:

  • Updating their brand and messaging.

  • Redesigning their key website pages so they worked for cross platform shopping.

  • Developing a style guide for the internal team to use to iterate and develop other pages as the brand and website continued to evolve.

 

Through their site data, we found that the majority of their customers used multiple devices to list and purchase on the platform.

Wireframes, UX, and Design

The auction listing pages were by far one of the most complicated pages on the site. The information they contained ranged from a few bullet points and a couple of photos, to what seemed like pages and pages of specs and hundreds of images.

 

An IronPlanet differentiator was the option to include a certified inspection by one of their team members. To amplify this, we created a name and a mark that would stand out on the auctions that included this inspection.

 

Photography

 

Using photography on the website and in marketing was new for the brand, but a welcome change. It helped IronPlanet create a connection with their customers, showing they were a company that empathized with their customers, versus just a platform with no point of view.

Since a custom shoot was not a possibility, we sourced numerous stock images for the client and created a style that customized the images so they were unique to the brand.

 
 
 

Custom UI Elements

 
 

Guidelines and Documentation

Once all the design was complete, we created comprehensive specifications and guidelines for the team, as well as photoshop and illustrator templates.

 

Email Communications

“The work we did with Danielle and her team was instrumental in the successful sale of IronPlanet.”
 

Project Deliverables:
Creative Facilitation, Brand Refresh, Site Strategy, Customer Profiles, Responsive Site User Experience and Visual Design, Creative Direction during Site Development, Website Style Guide, Email Templates, Photoshop Templates, Copywriting.

Project Lead, Creative Direction, Brand Strategy, UX and Design - Danielle Gutherie
Design Support - Jeff Caldwell