Design Rationale
Why each page is built the way it is.
00 — The thesis
- 01
The site is built for one reader: the person who writes the specification — architects, interior designers, general contractors. Not retail buyers.
- 02
One job, one action: make that reader decide to specify this floor, then give them exactly one thing to do — request samples.
- 03
The core idea: the floor is the datum, the reference plane every room is measured from. The homepage is an argument, not a menu — credibility is accrued before a single ask at the very end.
- 04
The competitive logic: specifiers choose the best product that fits the need. In a crowded category, the edge is not the floor — it is access to the information and detail that lets them commit, with the friction removed. Every decision below serves that.
- 05
The discipline: no pricing anywhere (a price reads as retail and starts comparison shopping); no retail language; restraint reads as confidence.
01 — Homepage
Homepage
an argument in five acts
Intent
Convince a first-time specifier the brand operates at their level, then route them to the ask — in one scroll.
- Act 1 · The Claim
- Full-bleed floor-level hero and the headline, and NO call-to-action in the hero. Asking for something before the site has earned standing is the tell of a brand that has none. The datum line (“± 0”) is the signature motif.
- Act 2 · The Territory
- Organised by material and capability, not price. Price tiers make a visitor self-select downward before reading anything. Hardwood leads (it carries the datum story); vinyl is present but framed by role (“where wood can’t go”) so the full range shows without diluting the premium claim. Custom is the tile worth arguing for — the one thing a mill can say that a distributor cannot.
- Act 3 · Proof of Intelligence
- Type only, no imagery, on purpose. This is the section that decides whether a specifier takes the brand seriously, and the construction knowledge is the most credible asset the brand owns. Restraint is the message.
- Act 4 · Proof, Installed
- The datum, verified in real rooms — physical evidence in the beat right before the ask. A tight proof beat, not the full gallery.
- Act 5 · The Ask
- The only conversion moment and the only dark section on the page. The design and the argument agree on a single point.
02 — Collections
Collections
a routing page, not a catalogue
Intent
Get the specifier to their tier fast, across the full range.
- Grouping
- Hardwood leads; vinyl grouped by role; format and capability (pattern, custom) separate. It answers “which part of the range is mine” before any browsing.
- Outbound brands
- Dacor and Monon are their own brands with their own sites; they appear as clearly-marked outbound links so no one hits a dead end or a competing brand disguised as a Terra Legno line.
03 — Collection landing
Collection landing
a mini-homepage
Intent
Answer “why does this collection exist” before showing a single colorway.
- The argument first
- Construction before aesthetics; the actual reason it is built the way it is.
- Construction strip
- Set as instrumentation in mono; it answers “is this the right tier for my project” in about two seconds, before the visitor looks at a single colour.
- Colorway grid
- Consistent scale and light temperature across the grid; comparability is the only reason the grid exists. No chip swatches.
04 — Colorway
Colorway
a specification document, not a listing
Intent
Give the specifier everything to decide, in the order they actually read.
- Panel order
- Identity → sample → specifications → installation → pattern → warranty → downloads. It mirrors how a specifier reads.
- No lifestyle copy in the spec panel
- Two lines of character note is the entire allowance. A specifier scanning for wear-layer thickness should never read past a paragraph of adjectives to find it.
- Roomvo + product links
- See it in the visitor’s own space, and reach the full detail. Access to information, friction removed.
- “Specified in”
- Proof attached to the spec: the floor is not theoretical, it is in named rooms.
05 — Projects
Projects
proof, not an awards page
Intent
Convert an admired room into a spec path.
- Filter by space type
- The specifier’s own segmentation, so they find work adjacent to their brief.
06 — Project page
Project page
the story
Intent
Give a new specifier the reasoning to trust the choice.
- Credits
- Naming the architect, designer and GC signals the project is real and that peers at this level specified the brand.
- Intent & “why this floor was specified”
- The specification rationale is the paragraph that converts a new specifier. This is the one place the site is allowed to argue at length.
- The manifest
- Every floor used links to its product page and its Roomvo view. A specifier who likes the room is one click from the exact floor and one from picturing it in their own space. The relationship is bidirectional.
07 — Sample request
Sample request
the one transaction
Intent
Remove every reason to disengage from the highest-intent action on the site.
- No account, no password, no login
- Any friction here costs a specification.
- Project name required
- It is how the business knows a real specification exists behind the request, and it is the follow-up hook.
- Spec PDF at confirm
- The sample and its paperwork arrive together, so the sample is useful the moment it lands on the material board. Most competitors skip this.
08 — The visual system
The visual system
why it looks like this
Intent
Look like it comes from people who make things, not people who style them.
- Warm daylight palette
- The wood carries all the colour; the interface stays out of its way. Wood also photographs badly in the dark.
- One grotesque + one monospace
- A single sans differentiated by weight and scale; monospace for all data so specifications read as instrumentation, not marketing.
- Horizontal composition
- A floor is a horizontal fact; the layout agrees with it.
- One dark tone, reserved for the ask
- The single dark moment on the site is the single conversion moment.
- Slow, scroll-led motion, no carousels
- Restraint reads as confidence.