Herman Miller, Muuto and twenty more, in one catalogue
01 — The brief
Serve a specifier and a shopper from one catalogue
Unison sells into office fit-outs, healthcare, hospitality, education and retail, usually alongside an architecture or design practice, and also sells individual pieces direct to people who want an Aeron chair at home.
A specifier searches by brand, by designer or by product family, needs dimensions, finishes and fabric options, and buys through a project quote. A retail buyer wants a price and a cart.
The brief was one catalogue that serves both: deep enough for specification work, simple enough that a direct purchase never gets lost in it, and structured so a distribution agreement with a global brand is presented properly.
Catalogue built for specification Products are organised by furniture type, lighting type, brand and designer at once, so the same chair is findable however the specifier happens to be thinking about it.
By the numbers
A catalogue at distribution scale
Feature
Every product page carries what a specification actually needs: dimensions for each variant, frame and fabric options, designer and brand attribution, and an enquiry form that captures industry and location so the project team can qualify it immediately.
- Dimensions listed per variant, not per product
- Frame, finish and fabric options including customer's own material
- Brand and designer attribution on every piece
- Enquiry capturing industry, location and source
- Online store and clearance running alongside the catalogue
- Healthcare and projects presented as their own sections
Content as a sales channel
A social hub for a considered purchase
Workplace furniture is bought slowly, and the research phase is long.
The Social Hub gathers newsletters, research, the Unison Design Edit and workplace articles on neuroaesthetics, wellbeing and the future of the workplace, which is the material a client forwards to their leadership team.
It sits inside the same site as the catalogue, so reading turns into a product view and a product view turns into a project enquiry without leaving the site.
02 — The process
How we got there
- 01
Structuring the catalogue
Furniture, lighting, brands and designers were mapped as intersecting taxonomies so one product record can be found four different ways.
- 02
Design led by the product
A restrained, image-first interface that lets furniture photography from the world's leading brands carry the page.
- 03
Building product records
Hundreds of products were set up with variant dimensions, materials, options, brand and designer relationships, all editable in-house.
- 04
Commerce alongside specification
The online store and clearance section were built into the same catalogue as the project enquiry path, without either overriding the other.
- 05
Content and community
The Social Hub, research and newsletter sections give the team a publishing platform that feeds back into the catalogue.
Twenty-five years, stated plainly The company section explains the workplace argument Unison sells on: environments that support wellbeing, collaboration and retention, backed by research rather than adjectives.
03 — The outcome
One site for the specifier and the buyer
A contract catalogue deep enough to specify from, with retail commerce that does not get in the way.
Project enquiries arrive with the product, industry and location attached, and direct sales run themselves through the store.
The team publishes research, newsletters and new arrivals in-house, which keeps a slow-cycle purchase in front of clients between projects.
Unison Workspaces selected Fuel Design from a number of website design companies, due to the professionalism of the company and the extent of functionality available in the CMS system. We related well to the team at Fuel and were confident that they understood our vision for the brand and would deliver a great result for our business. The project was managed very well, Fuel contributed by providing creative problem solving and excellent communication, at every stage of the website development. Fuel has a strategic alliance with other experts and was able to offer innovative suggestions in areas such as photography, to help differentiate our website and position our brand. Overall the project was a success and we are very pleased with the end result. We look forward to a long relationship with Fuel and would have no hesitation in recommending them as a leading website design company in Auckland.UNISON
Ready for a website like this?
Let's build the next one together
Design, build, content and search, handled by one Auckland team.
