Haartz corporation, founded in 1897, is the worldwide leader of automotive topping fabrics and interior trim materials. Headquartered in Acton, Ma., Haartz also has locations in Germany, India, China, Detroit, and Mexico.
The new Haartz website needed to achieve the following goals:
- Design: A contemporary, clean, and easy to use design.
- Content: Effective display and navigation of multiple product lines including mega menu navigation, product specifications, and samples.
- Technology: A cost cost-effective-in-class Content Management System (Drupal 7) that provides easy website editing, multi-lingual capabilities, advanced taxonomy, and integration with in-house information systems.
The information architecture proved to be one of the biggest challenges for this project. Specifically how product lines are organized and how product pages display options. Haartz lists products in 4 categories: convertible topping, roof treatments, road gear and aftermarket. Each category has subcategories such as in convertible topping there are 4 subcategories Sonnenland®, Twillfast®, Stayfast®, Landmark™ and PVC Topping.
This may seem straightforward but took quite a bit of time to create all of the categories and subcategories of products. In technical web development speak this is referred to as taxonomy. The Drupal CMS is very flexible in how it handles complex taxonomy with a feature called ‘Views’ as well as templates and blocks.
Haartz, like many B2B companies that provide products and services to international OEM companies, needed a taxonomy system that was easy to use and flexible. Once the taxonomy or information architecture was defined creating the site fell into place easily. Extensive training and support was also provided so Haartz could maintain the site going forward.
Many thanks to the Haartz team for the opportunity to work on this project.
