MetalVent: a catalogue built for comparing specifications.

A visitor who already knows the type of fan they need can start with a product category. Someone looking for a metal structure made to a drawing has a different question: can this manufacturer handle the work, and what information should be sent for an initial conversation? The public site gives products and services separate entries. That distinction matters because a list of standard equipment does not explain how to commission an individual manufacturing job.

The homepage currently introduces the company, presents product categories and explains services. It also provides access to downloads and contact details. These are complementary forms of evidence. A photograph helps identify the equipment; a document supports technical checking; the company information provides context for choosing a supplier. None of those elements alone can establish whether a particular installation is suitable. The final technical selection belongs with the manufacturer's specialists.

This is why a manufacturing website needs more than a large hero photograph followed by a request form. A useful enquiry usually follows some initial checking. If a visitor cannot identify the relevant product family or find supporting information, the company receives a less specific question, or no question at all. The design should make that initial research possible without turning the site into an engineering selection tool it was never commissioned to be.

The project notes describe an early decision to simplify the category structure and test it with the client's customers. That is evidence about the design process at launch, not a reason to freeze the catalogue indefinitely. The public homepage checked in September 2026 now lists ten product categories. Describing the current website as a fixed four-category catalogue would therefore be inaccurate.

For an industrial business, growth in the catalogue is normal. The useful question is whether a buyer can still recognise the grouping and reach the right information. Adding another product should not require inventing an entirely different page layout; adding a genuinely different product family may require reviewing the navigation. The editorial structure should leave room for both without assuming that fewer categories are always better.

The documented Webflow implementation separates categories, products and downloads into editable content. This gives the client's team a defined place to maintain the range. It does not remove the need for someone inside the company to own the information. A technically editable catalogue can still become unreliable if no one checks old documents, obsolete products or inconsistent naming across languages.

Bring the current catalogue, a sample of approved technical files, the languages you need and two or three typical customer enquiries. Those enquiries show which facts the sales team repeatedly has to request. We can then decide which information belongs on a public page and which should be discussed directly. Confidential drawings and customer details are not needed for the first estimate; a description of the workflow is enough.

Also name the person who will maintain products after launch. Their routine influences the CMS structure and handover: updating a document is a different task from creating a new category. If the business needs stock synchronisation, automatic quotations, a dealer area or engineering calculations, those requirements must be scoped separately. They should not be assumed to exist simply because the site is called a catalogue.

The verified outcome here is a published bilingual catalogue and an editable content structure described in the project materials. The six-week delivery period is specific to this project and its circumstances. It is not a standard promise for every industrial website, and no sales uplift is claimed without measurement. For a new catalogue, the next step is to define the range, documents and enquiry process, then agree the design and implementation scope against those materials.