What is Lyman Products?
Lyman Products is a renowned leader in the sports shooting industry, with a legacy dating all the way back to 1878. Known for its premium reloading tools and accessories, Lyman has earned a reputation as one of the most trusted and respected brands in their industry.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating closely with Lyman, taking a holistic approach to elevate various aspects of their digital presence. My work has ranged from refining visual assets and updating homepage design to crafting strategic content calendars and leading comprehensive brand refreshes.
This ongoing partnership has given me a unique, in-depth understanding of Lyman’s brand, values, and position within the industry. It has allowed me to push beyond typical design projects, creating impactful, tailored content and innovative resources that align with Lyman’s long-term vision.
Redesigning the Navigation
While working with Lyman, the most prominent task I did was redesigning the entire site navigation from the ground up. Through multiple meetings with sales & customer service, as well as my own personal research, I was able to recategorize everything on the site, making it much easier and more efficient for users to find the items they need and are looking for. Below is a few of the steps I undertook to get through this process
Research and Ideation
Defining the Categories
To begin the process, I first took all the categories and the site, listed them out, then made a 2nd list based off of that to try and optimize the selections. In the previous navigation, the amount of options got excessive, making it difficult to find the product you needed, as well as not have a good idea of what Lyman themselves makes. There were also duplicates of the same category, making it hard for the user to even know where they’ll end up.
By creating this initial word document, it made it easier to figure out what categories were most essential, as well as made it easier to share with peers to get their thoughts on the categories. Attached is the full word doc, showing both the old categories, new categories and notes/research I jotted down during my discoveries
Filling in the Categories
When I confirmed the categories through disscussions with customer service and sales, I then began placing individual items in each category. To start, I took our product catalog and went through each item in it, matching it with whatever category made the most sense. This was able to get through a large chunk of the process, as the catalog has a majority of the items sold.
After confirming the catalog items, I then shared the excel document I created for the products, asking for feedback from various departments. This included getting a clearer understanding of what customers desired from customer service, as well as working with technical support to make sure each item is in a logical spot.
Below you can view the full Word Doc and Excel Chart defining the navigation
Content and Visuals
This is how I displayed the main catagories to customers on the home page of www.lymanproducts.com
Here’s a sample of how I organized the categories in Excel, you can view the full PDF by clicking the image above
Expanding the Categories
With all the categories for the site now listed and with the products matching, I then began looking more into the visuals of the navigation. For this site, “Tombstone” pages are frequently used to delineate further down into a category, making it easier for a customer to find what they need. For example, when visiting this page “Gun Accessories”, you can see on the page itself that multiple Tombstone options are listed that take you to different Gun Accessory adjacent catagories.
With this in mind, I slowly began working with my photo guy to find an array of different photos that we can use throughout the site. Once I found a photo, I’d bring them into a universal PSD file and recreate them so they’re all the same size. For the main home category display, I added a bit of text for context as well as a low opacity black cover to make the text more legible.
Afterwards, I then took the core categories and created brief descriptions for them to improve usability and SEO. I again worked with Sales and Customer Service to make sure the descriptions are all fully accurate
Overall, I had around 50 different tombstone photos created, with them now all live and the site. Below you can see some of the tombstone photos used, as well as a word document showing all the category descriptions as well.
Updating the Visual Identity
One of the key priorities in my work with Lyman was refreshing their visual identity to better align with modern expectations. As a longstanding brand, much of their existing content felt outdated, from product photos to their overall presence on social media. I worked closely with their team to revamp these elements, creating a more cohesive and contemporary brand experience. Below are some of the areas I was able to provide the most impact in.
Homepage Video Banners
One of the big focuses I had was refining the home page design, with a key element of that being to add an array of different video banners showing off our products. With all the moving parts and niche functions the devices have, I felt it was important to have something both visual and engaging to get the user more interested in learning more about our products. Working closely with my videographer, we were able to map out a variety of different videos that are now rotated through on the Lyman Products Website. Below are just a few examples of my work, with even more in my full portfolio.
Refreshing Product Pages
Full catalog pages for the many products Lyman sells was another pain point I quickly noticed when working more on the site. Many pages would have very strange layouts, mixing in normal product pages and tombstone pages that would lead to further categories. The navigation as a whole was also very flawed, with duplicate catagories on the main navigation bar and many of the catagory pages they led to having poor pictures and no cohesion to how they’re organized.
Over time, I’ve worked more closely with their customer service team to better identify how customers are getting effected by these issues, as well as some more common features that users frequently search for that need to be made more prominent. It’s been a slow moving process due to all the moving parts and many different products available, but it’s made me gain a much clearer understanding of how to better design the navigation for both Lyman and other sites I work on.
To the right is an example of the New Products page now on the site. I made a big focus on getting the most prominent items to the top, having a cosistent themeing of photos throughout the page and to have each of them change to a more “in use” photo when hovered over.