Erik Mashkilleyson

Work / Case study

Raute

Making wood the building block of tomorrow’s economy.

We organised a global body of wood processing technology into six customer paths and one coherent site.

Website UX · Content concept · Copywriting · 2020–2021

Client
Raute
Project
Website UX, content concept and copywriting
Year
2020–2021
Sector
Wood processing technology
My role
UX and content concept, copywriting
Themes
Technology, Sustainability, Growth
Sheet
31
Fig. 01
The new raute.com on a laptop, tablet and phone: investor front page, half-year report download and newsletter sign-up.
The new raute.com. Investor front page, report download and newsletter sign-up across devices.

Raute is a global specialist in wood processing technology. Its digital presence was rebuilt to serve customers, sales and marketing across all of Raute's markets.

01 UX and content concept

Technical depth, organised around the customer

Raute's offering covers the whole production chain, from log handling to veneer, plywood and LVL manufacturing. The site had to present lines, machines, analyzers, software and lifecycle services to customers worldwide, often to readers who share no common language with the sales team.

At Avidly, I worked on the UX and content concept for the new raute.com. We structured a large body of technical information into a customer-led service where every entry point connects to the same six paths.

Industries. Entry through the customer's own production: veneer, plywood, LVL.
Lines and machines. A catalogue from complete production lines down to single machines and analyzers.
Services. Maintenance, modernisation and training across the mill's lifecycle.
References. Customer stories as proof of what the technology delivers.
Knowledge. Expert articles, whitepapers and guides that bring buyers in while they are still researching.
Contact. A form and the right salesperson at the end of every path.

Fig. 02
Two laptops showing grey wireframes of the Raute homepage and Knowledge section.
Wireframes. Homepage and Knowledge structure. Margin notes show where each element pulls its content from.

02 Sales

A tool for sales

The site was also designed as a tool for sales and marketing automation. Downloadable material, the newsletter, the Mill Advisor recommendation tool and contact forms capture what each customer is interested in, and the content supports the buying decision along a long purchase journey.

Fig. 03
Angled view of long page specifications for production line pages, with machines, images and text blocks.
Page specifications. Each production line page was specified element by element, with character counts: machines, technical details, references, downloads and contact.

03 Key message

Making wood the building block of tomorrow’s economy.

I wrote the new homepage line. The idea connected Raute's technology expertise with the growing role of wood as a renewable, carbon-storing material for the future. It places machines and production lines inside a bigger story, where wood builds the economy of the future and Raute makes that possible at industrial scale.

Fig. 04
Laptop showing the raute.com homepage with the headline “Making wood the building block of tomorrow’s economy.” over a forest image.
The homepage line on raute.com.

04 Investor pages

Award-winning investor pages

The renewal started with the investor pages. They share the structure and components of the rest of the site and tell the story of Raute as an investment: strategy, market environment, financials, shares, governance and reports.

In 2022, the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion and the Finnish Society of Financial Analysts named Raute's investor pages the best in the small cap series. The criteria include usability, layout and how clearly strategy, growth and profitability are presented.

Fig. 05
Five Raute investor pages side by side: front page, market environment, releases, Board of Directors and shareholders.
Investor page structure. Front page, market environment, releases and publications, Board of Directors and shareholders.

05 Design system

A language every market can read

The language barrier was also tackled visually. An icon library designed by Pauli Hirvonen shows machine properties such as capacity, thickness and peeling method without translation. The icons and site components were collected into Raute's design system, used across the web, technical tables and brochures.

Fig. 06
Grid of blue circular icons beside rating scales for density, diameter, peeling method, thickness and capacity.
Icon library. Rating scales for density, diameter, peeling method, thickness and capacity, plus general icons for technical tables and brochures.

06 Outcome

One customer experience for every market

The redesign brought brand, usability, content and digital marketing together into one coherent global customer experience. Working with Raute and its partners, the Avidly team produced most of the content from scratch in about a year: product and service descriptions, expert articles, whitepapers, videos, 3D images, infographics and brochures.

Fig. 07
Infographic of Raute veneer drying technology: a cutaway dryer showing air circulation and heat transfer, with 15% lower energy consumption and up to 10% more drying capacity.
Infographic. Veneer drying technology explained for buyers, one of the pieces produced for the new site.

Selected artefacts

Fig. 08
A laptop showing the icons page of the Raute design system.
Raute design system. Brand and web guidelines, components and downloadable icons in one place.
01What we created
  • UX and content concept
  • Website structure
  • Copywriting
  • Homepage line
02My role

I worked on the UX and content concept, website structure and copywriting for the new raute.com at Avidly, and wrote the homepage line.

03Impact
  • Most of the site's content was produced from scratch in about a year, with Raute and its partners.
04Recognition
  • Best Investor Website 2022, winner in the small cap series. Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion and the Finnish Society of Financial Analysts.
See also