Artisan and craftsperson Edith Heath infused her company with a strong design foundation. For over half a century, she was both a design icon and a dedicated ceramicist. In 2003, two years before her death, a husband and wife team purchased Heath’s venerable ceramics company; while preserving her design legacy and handcrafted techniques they’ve brought business processes into the 21st century.

This design-appropriate site with a pleasurable, easy to use interface reflects and incorporates the core design principles expressed in all of Heath’s work: from the products and their marketing materials to the recent book, Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity. It looks ahead to the future while also functioning as a showcase of the beautifully-crafted products and a primary point of communication from Heath to the outside world.

First and foremost, it’s a product showcase for a broad audience (from the general public to the trades) with large, clear images that showcase the ceramics in real-world settings without visual noise or clutter. An equal amount of space is devoted to telling the Heath story through copy and visuals. Slideshows and pages offer insight into Heath’s artisan approach—everything from the kilns that fire the ceramics to the people who work in the factory (many who’ve been there for over 20 years).

Throughout the site, an intuitive navigation links to any product page in a single click and users can navigate by product name or product type, so the path to products is always a simple one. And, although the previous version of the site had an artificial division between product information and shopping, the new site intentionally mimics the experience a user would have if they were visiting the factory store: a great look at each item and an immediate ability to purchase.

• One agency, and ten people built the site in four-and-half months.
 
• The extensive photography, with slightly larger file sizes, is best viewed with a high-bandwidth connection. It’s an appropriate match-up for Heath’s design-savvy target audience and a CSS and JavaScript caching scheme keeps load times to a minimum.

• The site uses Sava CMS, a standards-compliant open-source CMS that’s powerful, intuitive, feature-rich and also flexible and easy to use. It’s great for design-focused projects because the templating engine makes content updates easy without disrupting page designs.

• The site has just under 300 pages and at its deepest the navigation is four levels.