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Concept projectsConcept project 03

Halden Steel

A 2008 site with a marquee, a "call for pricing" product table and a credit application PDF, for a mill that ships 240,000 tons a year.

Sector
Structural steel mill and fabricator
Location
Birmingham, Alabama, US

Before

The situation

Halden is a fictional steel mill and fabricator in Birmingham, Alabama. It rolls beams, plate and tube for bridges, industrial buildings and energy projects across the Southeast, and it has run three shifts since 1962. Its customers are fabricators, general contractors and estimators who need certified material on a date.

The old site is from 2008. It has a marquee, a clipart picture of beams, a product table where every row says “Call”, and a credit application PDF in the sidebar. It was built for a desktop monitor and a fax machine.

The redesign is built differently from a job shop site because the business is different. A mill with sixty years behind it can afford to be calm: a serif headline about shipping on time, one wide photograph, four figures, and a numbered product list with thin rules. Quality is a list of documents, not claims. The quote form asks for a take-off, which is what a buyer actually has in hand.

The old Halden Steel site, a 2008 layout with a grey gradient header, dark red navigation bar, left sidebar of PDF links, a scrolling marquee and a product table where every size says "Call".
The old site on a desktop screen. On a phone, this whole layout shrinks to fit the width and visitors pinch to read it.

What it was costing them

  1. Hiring

    A mill running three shifts needs operators, crane drivers and electricians all year. The site had no careers page, and the one hint that jobs existed was a sidebar PDF.

  2. Credibility

    Fabricators and general contractors need mill test reports, AISC certification and Buy American compliance before they can even bid with your steel. None of it was on the site.

  3. Quote requests

    Every product said "Call". A buyer with a take-off in hand at 7 pm had a phone number, a fax number and nothing else.

After

What the redesign does

  1. A product list with sizes, grades and a spec sheet for each, so an estimator can confirm in a minute that the mill rolls what the drawing calls for.

  2. Four figures under the hero, capacity, turnaround, beam length and years in business, the facts that decide whether a buyer picks up the phone.

  3. Certifications shown as documents, with mill test reports promised with every order and Buy American compliance stated plainly.

  4. A quote form built around a take-off, sizes, grades, quantities and a needed-by date, plus a careers section written for all three shifts.

The redesigned Halden Steel home page on a phone, warm off-white with a large serif headline about steel that ships when promised, a wide photo band, four figures and a numbered product list.
The redesign on a phone.
The redesigned Halden Steel home page on desktop, centered serif headline above a full-width photo band, a row of four figures and a numbered product list with thin rules.
The same page on a desktop screen. Photo areas are placeholders for the client’s own photos.

What you would notice

Not promises of numbers. The changes a company like this would see once the site is doing its job.

  • Quote requests arrive as take-offs with sizes, grades and quantities, ready to price, instead of "what do you have" phone calls.
  • Estimators download spec sheets and certificates themselves, and procurement questionnaires take minutes instead of days.
  • Operators and electricians apply from the night shift, through a form that works on a phone in a parking lot.

Concept project. Halden Steel is a fictional company; names and details in the mockups are invented.

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