Katie Mitchelmore, Brand Manager, on the launch of our new website

Love the new Solus website! Can you tell us about the project? How did it come about and what was the rationale? 

Thanks! This project has been a long time in the making, and after we launched the rebrand last year, the website was the next step. The rebrand was all about fully reflecting who we are as a business—our purpose, values, and what we stand for, and we wanted the new website to embody these same principles.  

At Solus, we’re guided by three core pillars - people, product, and planet, and these shaped the brief for the new website. We wanted to showcase our amazing team and people-centric, collaborative culture; communicate our commitment to sustainability and share valuable insights to help customers make informed, responsible choices; and prioritise usability with easy search, filtering, and comprehensive information on our products and ranges.  

As part of the process, we carried out in depth interviews with both clients and the team here at Solus, and all of that feedback went into shaping the new website.  

From a user experience perspective, what were some of the key goals you had in mind? It feels so intuitive to navigate and find exactly what I'm looking for! 

A key goal was to make it as user friendly as possible. On the previous website, we had a lot of feedback from customers that the filter system was clunky to use, and that there wasn’t enough information on each product available on the website.  

The new website features a comprehensive filter system that enables users to filter by numerous different criteria, such as sustainable credentials, size, finish, colour, slip rating, and more. 

The range and tile pages have been designed to give the customer as much relevant information as possible, with a user-friendly interface.  Customers can also now download high-res images straight from the website – a feature that was heavily requested from both our customers and sales team! 

One of the things I love most about the new site is how it brings Solus' values to life, especially your commitment to sustainability. How did you approach showcasing this important aspect of the company? 

Sustainability is a huge part of Solus, and we felt that our previous website didn’t communicate this. Since joining the business, our Sustainability Manager, Ken Graham, has carried out in-depth research into the industry as a whole, the environmental impact of the products we sell, and our internal processes. 

We wanted to make all this information accessible to help our customers make informed, sustainable choices. Our customers can now read all about our commitment to sustainability, including the core factories we work with, the lifecycle and environmental impact of tiles, a glossary of environmental accreditations, as well as our own internal procedures to minimise our impact.   

We are constantly exploring and testing the latest advancements in sustainability and innovation within our industry. You can stay up to date with these stories in our journal section.  

The sound effects are such a unique touch! What inspired you to incorporate them, and is there a special meaning behind them? 

The sounds were Sam Frith’s idea sparked by Narinder Sagoo MBE, Art Director at Foster + Partners, talk ‘The Power of the Pen’. Narinder talked about the profound impact drawing has had on his life and career, and the different types of pens that helped shape this. Each pen has a slightly different sound associated with it, and this got us thinking about the different types of subtle architectural sounds that we experience as a backdrop to our daily lives. We collaborated with music producer James Mason to record these sounds – the click and score of a pen, the cut of tile, the swipe of a tape measure – to help shape the user experience of the site.  

Now that the new website is live, what are you most excited about? What kind of impact do you hope it will have on Solus and its customers? 

A huge amount of work has gone into this project from the whole team, so it’s so exciting to see it finally live! We’ve evolved as a business a lot in the last few years, and I hope that our website now fully reflects who we are as a business and communicates our three core pillars – people, product, and planet. My favourite part is how people-centric the website is, showcasing our fantastic team, culture, and community-driven initiatives.  

It was absolutely a team effort. Huge shout out to everyone who helped bring it to life – Sam Frith for overall guidance, the graphic design team - Ricardo Jardin, Lara-Jane van Antwerpen and Carrina Rosu - for all their incredible hard work, Ellen Rose for getting all the product data ready, Byron Nikolouzos and Deividas Jaskinas for ensuring our internal system and database linked up, Conleth Buckley for all the copy, and everyone in the business whose input was invaluable in shaping the site.