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STYLE CAD
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
TEAM GRM
Guan Wang, Ryan Chavez, Melody Kim
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Client Needs
User Needs
Competitors
Brand Projection
Site Architecture
Functionality
Content
Navigation
Design
CLIENT NEEDS
I. General purpose website for StyleCAD
II. Target local customers
III. Showcase the product, specifically
through video demos, to make sales
USER NEEDS
I. Provide software support
II. Keep users updated
SELECTION OF
COMPETITORS
GERBER TECHNOLOGY
Considered the #1 patternmaking CAD
system today.
LECTRA
Patternmaking CAD system from
France.
A fashion industry oriented company .
SELECTION OF
COMPETITORS
TUKATECH
Patternmaking CAD system cited by
many users in our user survey.
OPTITEX
Considered the main competitor from
Israel.
SELECTION OF
COMPETITORS
PAD
Another main competitor from Canada,
based in Hong Kong.
AUTODESK
Non-patternmaking software & noncompetitor.
Considered the #1 CAD software today.
BRAND PROJECTION
What we
dislike
The blue color scheme of Gerber Technology’s
homepage, along with the sharp lines, simple
deliver the connotation that they are a professional
corporation that is expected to be a global player in
the CAD Systems market. There are no “tricks up
their sleeve,” as what you see is what you get.
The appeal of Autodesk is to come off as sleek,
informative yet clean. Autodesk excels in doing
this by providing an edgy brand that is
everything a serious corporate website should
aspire to look like.
BRAND PROJECTION
What we
dislike
Opitex’s website shows little effort to convey a
brand. Their designs are out of date and
unattractive.
PAD Systems has a lack of branding. Their site
looks like a spam site- one you want to leave
quickly out of fear of getting a virus. Material is
vaguely styled. Pictures are not thematic in any
way.
SITE ARCHITECTURE
What we
like
Lectra has a relatively simple navigation setup
where information is organized by topic. What is
appreciated is the left sidebar nav on sub pages
with extra buffer info on right. Helps deliver added
information about the company and their goals.
Site architecture is well manufactured,
information is sorted well, and further sorted into
sub-categories that are distinguishable. The
architecture of the content is not overwhelming
with.
SITE ARCHITECTURE
What we
dislike
Information architecture for Gerber Technology is
very restricted. This gives the impression that there
is little information available. But after spending
time exploring the site, one learns there is a large
amount of content to browse. Info needs to be
spread out and organized in a more friendly way.
Opitex has a poor architecture of content, very
disorganized. Similar navigation elements
contain different sub categories, impairs
recognition and recall.
FUNCTIONALITY
Gerber Positives:
Link to different regions for an
international company.
Useful in-site search bar
Negatives:
Users can login for customer
support but this feature is not
readily available on the
homepage
Lectra Positives:
- Newsletter Subscription with
different options and language
selections
- "Share" button for social media
network
Negatives:
- "Contact"button for contacting
event coordinators
Provide online social
media connection
that is great for
online marketing.
Opitex Positives:
Provide login
function on the
home page
Allow users to
register mail list
Provide social
media network
button that users
can easily share
information on their
twitter, facebook
account
FUNCTIONALITY
Opitex Negatives:
These are clickable youtube link.
However, there is no indicator, such
as hand shape, when the cursor is
hovered on the youtube preview
images. In addition, these is no title
for each link. Users have no idea
what each video is about
Positives: Autodesk has a good in-site
store, where users can shop and
compare the products online
CONTENT
What we
like
Gerber:
- Showing the latest news
about the company and the
software developing tells
users the website is up-todate
- Slides with pictures and
short description of the
main features of the
software show what the
company does and its
strength
Lectra Positives:
- Showing customer spotlight
- Showing both press releases
and upcoming event on the
homepage
- Industry selections
Opitex Positives:
- Offers many support
information, including
phone number, address,
and email.
- It has special
information for world
customer and necessary
websites
Tukatech Positives:
Tukatech list education information such as school,
learning center and academy where users can learn
about their software.
CONTENT
Autodesk Positives:
Autodesk also provides
user and business
community, where
individual can share each
personal experience
Gerber Negatives:
List few external links without explaining
what they are for
Lectra Negatives:
Only phone numbers are listed, no email
addresses
OptiTex Negatives:
Content is not categorized very
well. For example, under the
"About US" category, it includes
information like careers and Press
kit. These content may be better
appear in other category.
NAVIGATION
What we
like
Gerber:
Showing each feature through a designed model
Lectra:
- Use breadcrumb
navigation as a way to
show users where they are
within an app or a site
- Provide a vertical
navigation bar to provide
assist navigation process
PAD:
Clean navigation bar
with login, register and
cart information on the
top-right
NAVIGATION
What we
dislike
Gerber: The top navigation bar seems very organized, but it often requires redundant
steps under the drop-down menu to go to a page. For example, a user simply wants to
check the general service agreement, the user must select whether it is software or
hardware, and then select the particular system. The general link "Service Agreements"
is not clickable. We suggest combining some pages would reduce user steps.
Lectra: The top navigation
bar does not keep consistent
on their second layer pages
Optitex: Poor user
control navigation
bar. The navigation
link automatically
expands even the
cursor is still far
away from the link
DESIGN
What we
like
PAD’s site is really basic and is very aesthetically
displeasing. The colors scheme for the site clashes
and the graphics present on the homepage look
elementary.
Optitex’s site is also aesthetically displeasing
with a lot of clashing elements strewn all over
the site. There is some sort of a color scheme
however, the site is more reminiscent of a
prescription drug website.
DESIGN
What we
dislike
Autodesk’s site is by far the most sleek and
aesthetically pleasing. Simple and minimal, the
main content is highlighted by the design aspects
such as color, gradients and grid layout. Beautiful
images are used in the slideshow which adds to
the whole site.
Lectra’s site design came second. Aesthetically,
the site is really plain however, the very few
colors that are present are cohesive (aside from
the industry section).
TAKE AWAY
• Brand - We should aim to make StyleCAD sleek and
condensed in appearance while remaining professional with
corporate and global attitude. Drawing inspiration from both
Gerber Tech and Autodesk
• Site Architecture - Content for StyleCAD needs to be
condensed to show fewer words and well organized. As of
now, StyleCAD fails to do this, which makes their site look
unattractive and out of date. This is drawing inspiration from
Autodesk and Lectra’s sites.
TAKE AWAY
• Functionality – Having basic functions available like a search
form and login forms to facilitate customer support will really
help the site be more useful to all types of user groups.
• Content – This competitive analysis revealed a lot of different
ways to engage users using various content like communities,
customer spotlights etc. Support services were organized
cleverly which are all good points to incorporate into the
StyleCAD site.