Enabling Change: Nemschoff
Can strategic design turn a complex catalog into a user-friendly sales tool?
Nemschoff publishes a comprehensive annual catalog that serves as the source of truth for pricing information and specification decisions that dealers and customers must make. But, producing the catalog was a daunting, highly manual task, which often resulted in many inaccuracies. Long term, these inaccuracies led to incorrect orders and increased cost to Nemschoff.
ThoughtForm analyzed the catalog, pinpointing users’ communication needs and where the catalog fell short. ThoughtForm redesigned the catalog to help users find desired products more easily and to better recognize each product’s value. We also developed a production system that automates the flow of Nemschoff’s price data directly into publishing files, increasing speed to market and improving the accuracy of information.
Who did we help?
Nemschoff has been making high-quality furniture for healthcare and other high-use environments since 1950. In recognition of its consistent best-in-class quality, the company was acquired by contract furniture leader Herman Miller in 2009. Today, Nemschoff offers a comprehensive portfolio of products supporting the entire care continuum, and continues to be a frequent recipient of design awards for its innovative products.
“ThoughtForm helped us transform our catalog into a much more powerful marketing tool, and helped us become more agile in deploying it. The responses from our audiences have been extremely positive.”
What did we do?
Created a catalog
design that supports
users, while highlighting
brand value.
Nemschoff’s dealers were power users of the catalog, so any changes had to support the way they work. ThoughtForm reorganized the catalog to highlight product categories, designed model listings to permit quick skimming, illustrated and explained complex features, and grouped all specifying information together for faster use. At the same time, ThoughtForm revealed brand value through new content that expresses Nemschoff’s design values, and a visual redesign that better reflected the character of the brand.
Implemented a
new, streamlined
production system.
The Nemschoff team was committed to two key objectives: improving the accuracy and consistency of product information and increasing the catalog’s speed to market. To support these objectives, ThoughtForm planned and launched a new automated production system that flows prices from a database directly into the new custom page templates. Later, when Nemschoff switched to a new price database, ThoughtForm helped them align the catalog to the new ordering process, while enhancing the catalog design.
Successfully introduced
the new changes to the
organization.
In addition to implementing the new catalog design, ThoughtForm helped Nemschoff negotiate the changeover process. ThoughtForm delivered custom training to the Nemschoff staff on using the system, developed orientation materials to help dealers and specifiers use the new ordering process, and produced an animated video to demonstrate the value of the new process.
What did we create?
Analysis and Design
ThoughtForm created a Design Innovation Guide (DIG) to document how a Vision Catching session held with key stakeholders was translated into a specific design approach. A series of iterative prototypes further advanced the design and showed exactly how its new features would work.
Product Template Integration
Based on our research and recommendations for production software, ThoughtForm developed a detailed set of custom product templates that implemented the design and supported the automatic flow of prices.
Orientation and Training
To ensure the successful implementation of the catalog, ThoughtForm developed a training session for Nemschoff’s core team, as well as orientation materials that introduced stakeholders to the new catalog and ordering system.
The Results
Through the course of this strategic redesign process, Thoughtform:
Engaged Nemschoff team to define content and align on priorities
Created a new information architecture and visual cues to make it easier for users to understand and find essential information
Created design prototypes and validated them with Nemschoff dealers and experts
Developed a stronger story about the value of Nemschoff products through the presentation of the brand
Sourced production software and developed custom production templates
Trained Nemschoff team in using new software and workflow, giving them greater governance over the price book content
Developed tools to help Nemschoff socialize new format with dealers and users
Successfully adapted publishing system to support a major database changeover