TOPCON

THE CHALLENGE

Topcon Positioning Systems is known globally for helping customers across a wide range of industries achieve dramatic productivity gains through products that harness the power of geo-positioning technology, making what they do smarter, faster and more accurate. Topcon needed to modernize their online presence and appeal to their large and varied audience of customers while presenting themselves as a leading provider of end-to-end workflow solutions.

During a collaborative yearlong engagement, I was an Art Director partnered with Topcon to design and build a global destination that was localized for multiple countries with new messaging, interaction models and visual design. I worked with Design Researchers, other UX Designers, Content Strategists, and the client to develop a new visual and interaction design language for their digital products.

BUILDING EMPATHY

Researchers began the project with a few simple questions: How do we tell an authentic Topcon solutions story? To find answers, our research team dove into the needs and motivations of customers. They also spent time with company stakeholders and Topcon dealers to understand how the online experience could better support the business. Those findings resulted in a core set of personas that drove our design thinking going forward.

IDEATION

Working in close collaboration with Topcon stakeholders, we arrived at a scalable IA that radically changed the way customers interacted with the company online. Instead of driving users directly to product pages, the new IA funneled them down a path toward a Topcon solution, a group of products shown working together to create a full workflow for a given application within each industry. Case studies, customer testimonials, social media posts, infographics and thought leadership pieces provided “proof-points” along the way to build credibility and keep users engaged with the story.

A NEW VISUAL DESIGN LANGUAGE

Topcon needed a modern visual identity to support its customer-focused brand promise. We created custom illustrations featuring silhouettes depicting scenes of Topcon products in real-life settings that would work worldwide, as well as a system for developing iconography used across all site sections and a new color palette. We also provided art direction for hero images that played up the partnership theme by showing Topcon employees working closely with customers on actual job sites. I couldn't help but put on a hard hat and stand in as a model for some of the shoots.

IMPLEMENTATION

Working with our in-house engineering team we had the opportunity to build the new Topcon experience. I worked side-by-side with our developers as they built out the responsive, multilingual content management system that enabled data sharing across different content types and featured custom modules to support integration with enterprise services. 

For Topcon, this was more than just a redesign. The website ushered in a new era for the company and its employees, providing them with a heightened sense of purpose and a vision for the future. The team was pleased to have partnered with everyone there to make that happen.