Founded in 1904 in Brooklyn, NY, Minwax has grown to be the #1 brand of stains and clear finishes in the US. I was presented with the challenge to update the company’s web presence to attract the growing DIY community. Minwax is a brand that has historically marketed itself to contractors and men, but came to the realization that there is a growing DIY community driven by women.

The focus for the site would be based on inspiration, intelligent interactive how-to tutorials created by brand experts, and a product line that has become synonymous with craftsmanship and incomparable excellence, while making the content available on any device with a new responsive layout.

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STRATEGY & UX

Working with the Minwax brand and product teams, I created a content strategy that would focus on rich photography and dependable how-tos written by brand professionals. Because of the growing mobile traffic, it was important to design a system that would allow content to flow easily from desktop to mobile without hiding or condensing valuable step-by-step instructions and tools.

DESIGN

I wanted to design Minwax.com to be clean and modern. It was important that the site mirror the elegance and inspiration from the best in the architecture & interior design industry. Embracing the iconic yellow paint can, combined with a clean, light type face was the perfect blend that spoke to both contractors and male and female DIYers and elevated an already iconic product line.

UX/IA

Two of the biggest changes in the new site included enhancing the already vast how-to section and expanding and updating the inspiration section while developing a DIY community. By using projects from both Minwax professionals and social networks, it allowed users of any skill level to share and display their results achieved by using Minwax products. Users could not only get inspiration from this, but also follow interactive how-to steps to accomplish projects of any size.