Autodesk Website Design, 1999-2007
Autodesk helps over 4 million design professionals in more than 160 countries model, make, manage, and market their designs - from hotels, highways, and electrical plants to Academy Award-winning special effects. Over almost a decade, Method has partnered with Autodesk to keep its website up-to-date with changes in its business and its industry.
In 1999, when Method began its first site website engagement for Autodesk, the company wanted a cleaner interface and a better way for potential customers to understand its products. Method's design streamlined the home page, improved the site's usability, and let users find products either by product family or by their professional needs.
Revisiting the site in 2002, we carried out research and analyzed site logs to understand how users understood and navigated the site. Based on that insight, we reorganized the site to center each user's experience on the core products, while also adding space for new marketing initiatives. New XML-based data structures enabled efficient site localization. In 2004, we designed a new top-level information structure and a visual language to integrate the site with a new brand language, which we developed as a separate project (see related story). In 2007, we implemented the first stage of a comprehensive Internet strategy, providing features to address registered users with targeted content on each page, among other initiatives. That year, we also expanded the brand language to accommodate Autodesk's move into software for media and entertainment. Over the various projects, Method has conducted hundreds of interviews with Autodesk leaders and customers, becoming intimately familiar with Autodesk's competitive space and corporate strategies, making for quick ramp up times on each project. The close partnership has also made us a trusted advisor to Autodesk's team. Our knowledge of the company and its customers, married to our independent insight into Internet and interface trends, ensures that our solutions for Autodesk are both tightly integrated with the company's brand and its business goals and at the cutting edge of Internet strategy.
Revisiting the site in 2002, we carried out research and analyzed site logs to understand how users understood and navigated the site. Based on that insight, we reorganized the site to center each user's experience on the core products, while also adding space for new marketing initiatives. New XML-based data structures enabled efficient site localization. In 2004, we designed a new top-level information structure and a visual language to integrate the site with a new brand language, which we developed as a separate project (see related story). In 2007, we implemented the first stage of a comprehensive Internet strategy, providing features to address registered users with targeted content on each page, among other initiatives. That year, we also expanded the brand language to accommodate Autodesk's move into software for media and entertainment. Over the various projects, Method has conducted hundreds of interviews with Autodesk leaders and customers, becoming intimately familiar with Autodesk's competitive space and corporate strategies, making for quick ramp up times on each project. The close partnership has also made us a trusted advisor to Autodesk's team. Our knowledge of the company and its customers, married to our independent insight into Internet and interface trends, ensures that our solutions for Autodesk are both tightly integrated with the company's brand and its business goals and at the cutting edge of Internet strategy.
