Site: http://www.americanstandard-us.com/

Why did you redesign the site?

Jeannette Long, director of marketing communications, American Standard Brands, says:
The core goal of the redesign was to create a site that addressed the needs of our varied audiences. AmericanStandard.com is a website used by various channel partners and consumers, so creating one site that properly served each group was no small task. Our goal was to provide important information needed to make product or project decisions in a well organized, easy-to-navigate structure. Throughout the course of the project, we made sure the site was fast, easy, and clear. Those priorities were at the heart of each decision. We also added enhanced functionality and content that would be useful for our visitors: a new manufacturer cross reference, water savings calculator, product videos, water saving rebate locator, e-learning section, and much more.

What was the biggest change from drawing board to final product?

Long says:
The initial project plan called for an entire new visitor interface to be built on top of the existing data architecture. Shortly into the project, it became obvious that in order to support the new site structure and content organization, database changes were needed. Although this was not part of the original scope, we realized it was necessary to expand our scope to support the new expanded functionality. The end product resulted in building an entirely new relational database optimized for site performance.

What we liked
Anyone who has ever remodeled a bathroom or kitchen is going to be impressed with the new American Standard website, which does an excellent job of putting a wealth of information on the front page. Dig a little deeper, and users can find peer reviews of the products, which is a great touch. Additionally, the site's creative does a nice job of tapping into the growing green movement both in terms of imagery and, more importantly, giving consumers access to information that helps them make eco-friendly purchasing decisions.

What we'd love to see in 2.0
Opening up to user comments was a nice step. But we'd like to see the brand take that idea to the next level by allowing users to upload pictures of their bathroom and kitchen remodels, which would be a nice complement to the "Inspiration Gallery" because it would showcase what real people did with the product.