STYLE CADCOMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

TEAM GRMGuan Wang, Ryan Chavez, Melody Kim

TABLE OF CONTENTSClient 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 supportII. Keep users updated

SELECTION OF COMPETITORS

GERBER TECHNOLOGYConsidered the #1 patternmaking CAD system today.

LECTRAPatternmaking CAD system from

France. A fashion industry oriented

company .

SELECTION OF COMPETITORS

TUKATECHPatternmaking CAD system cited by many users in our user survey.

OPTITEXConsidered the main competitor

from Israel.

SELECTION OF COMPETITORS

PADAnother main competitor from Canada, based in Hong Kong.

AUTODESKNon-patternmaking software & non-

competitor. Considered the #1 CAD software

today.

BRAND PROJECTION

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.

What we dislike

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

Opitex’s website shows little effort to convey a brand. Their designs are out of date and unattractive.

What we dislike

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

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.

What we like

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

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.

What we dislike

Opitex has a poor architecture of content, very disorganized. Similar navigation

elements contain different sub categories, impairs recognition and recall.

FUNCTIONALITY

Provide online social media

connection that is great for online

marketing.

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

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

CONTENTWhat we like

Gerber:

- Showing the latest news about the company and the software developing tells users the website is up-to-date

- Slides with pictures and short description of the main features of the software show what the company does and its strengthLectra 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.

CONTENTAutodesk 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

Gerber:Showing each feature through a designed model

What we like

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

NAVIGATIONWhat 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

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.

What we like

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

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.

What we dislike

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.