LiftEquip GmbH / Thyssenkrupp AG: Website Relaunch and UI Development for a Global Elevator Components Manufacturer

Art Director and UI Designer·2018·Not specified·4 people·2 min read

Full website relaunch for a global manufacturer of elevator components, covering concept, art direction, UI development, technical illustration, and close collaboration with the development team.

Overview

LiftEquip GmbH, operating within the Thyssenkrupp group, manufactures and sells elevator components — drive systems, safety components, ropes, and guides — to small and large elevator manufacturers worldwide. The company required a complete website relaunch to reflect its global market position and technically complex product portfolio.

Problem

The existing web presence did not adequately communicate LiftEquip's product depth and technical expertise to an international B2B audience. The relaunch needed to make a highly technical catalogue accessible and navigable while maintaining engineering credibility.

Constraints

  • Highly complex and technical product catalogue requiring clear visual and editorial structure.
  • Close coordination with development team throughout concept, design, and implementation phases.
  • International audience with varying levels of technical familiarity.
  • Corporate context within Thyssenkrupp group requiring alignment with broader brand standards.

Approach

Visual and editorial concept development for the full website relaunch. Contribution to functional specification and concept documents. Art direction of the frontend, development of UI elements and animations, technical illustration of selected products, and continuous collaboration with the development team throughout implementation.

Project deliverables

Develop technical illustrations of selected products as core UI elements.

Photography alone was insufficient to communicate the precision and complexity of elevator drive and safety components. Technical illustration provided clarity and differentiation while reinforcing engineering credibility.

Responsibilities:
  • Rely on existing product photography without illustration.
  • Commission 3D renderings instead of technical illustration.

Contribute to the functional specification from the design side.

Early design involvement in the requirements process ensured that UI and UX considerations were built into the project architecture rather than retrofitted during development.

Responsibilities:
  • Receive a completed specification from the client and design to it.
  • Limit design input to visual execution without strategic involvement.

Design disciplines

  • Web

Result & Impact

  • Full website relaunch including concept, UI, illustration and development coordination
    Scope

LiftEquip gained a technically credible, internationally deployable web presence that communicated a complex product catalogue clearly to a global B2B audience. Technical illustrations added a distinctive visual layer that set the site apart from standard industrial web presences.

Learnings

  • Technical illustration is a powerful tool in industrial B2B contexts — it communicates precision where photography cannot.
  • Early design involvement in specification and concept phases produces better-integrated outcomes than design as a downstream step.
  • Close collaboration with development throughout — not just at handoff — significantly reduces misalignment and rework.
Liftequip
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