Shapeways

The Challenge

When I joined Shapeways the goal was to make 3d printing appealing to a wider audience. We focused on making it easier to create, sell, and discover 3D printed products.

The effort started with a rebrand. We focused highlighting core values, feeling more friendly and community driven. Those values eventually dictated what the experience would be all the way down the line.

Designing Outside the Box

The company logo had some history and a lot of feelings attached to it so scrapping it for a new one was a task I had to treat with sensitivity. I set out to take the exisiting logo outside it's box and soften its edges. The mark at the end signified the spark or the inspiration of an idea.

The long-term vision was to establish the spark as the distinguishing mark of Shapeways. Making it instantly recognizable as the Apple logo. Setting that bar pretty high.

UI and UX Efforts

We wanted the designer's products to stand at the forefront in addition to making the site easy to navigate. This lead us to create an experience that was clean and minimal. We restructured core pages which made it easier for users to understand where they were and what they needed to do around the site.

Typography was high-contrast with Shapeways blue used thoughtfully and sparingly to draw attention when necessary.

I also successfully championed converting the site to be mobile friendly (thanks Google) with my initiation of our responsive grid. No small task when moving and entire property with hundreds of pages and lots of legacy code.

Let the products do the talking

Images that showcased beautiful and interesting products along with people using those products helped tell the story of how anyone could see them in their lives. I oversaw, photographed or art directed much of the photography for the site as well as for promotional collateral.

Results

It's sometimes hard to measure clearly the impact of a rebrand, but since the initial release we saw an increase in monthly traffic over 2x. Monthly sales increased at a steady 2x rate. Shapeways continues to be at the forefront of consumer 3D printing and I believe that is in part due to the success of design thinking we've implemented.