This web project is dear to our heart as it involved the re-design of the first ever website launched by Miura all those years ago. The client, Molson Group, is the UK's largest independent dealer in construction equipment.

Baring this in mind, we embarked on the design research starting with an analysis of the competition. After reviewing several competitor sites a pattern emerged - the dominance of dark, heavy looking sites as well as the use of clichéd colours and imagery. Out of this research, the value of designing something clean, modern and approachable became clear. This became the foundation for the design philosophy of the new molsongroup.co.uk site. As the design evolved, the use of white space and grids characterised the site and imparted a minimal feel that would set it apart from its competitors. The result is a crisp, clear, clean modern design with images that reflect the brand beautifully.

Initially the used machines section posed some design challenges because visually, the Mascus fed content did not fit with the whole aesthetic of the site. To overcome this, our development team worked through the XML feed from Mascus and organised the data so it could plug into the front end without compromising the design. The result is light, bright and sharp images, distinct from all the competition.

With over 200 new machines in stock and on average 600 used machines sold every year, the website is highly content rich - therefore a good CMS was crucial. On the previous Molson site, machines were uploaded to the site via the independent nationwide online marketplace for heavy machinery - Mascus. This was a system the client was comfortable with using and was reluctant to leave behind. So we customised the front end of Mascus so that the client had a system that they were comfortable with but that had been updated to reflect the new brand.

The site launched on June 6th and works across all web and mobile browsers and avoids using Flash in favour of javascript solutions. This site has the most comprehensive list of equipment and it is completely content managed so the client has full control over updates and can easily make changes to imagery and copy.

The site is the first of it's kind within the heavy machines market and the client is delighted with the result.