Amtechwebsite redesign:before & after

Amtech is a contract electronics manufacturer in Troy, Michigan. Its own site lists PCB assembly, wire harness and box build, product development, design for volatility and on/re-shoring.

The menu says it serves venture-backed companies, open hardware teams, drone makers and other engineering-led customers. It also runs two tools, RapidRFQ for instant PCB quotes and BOMsense for tariff and parts-risk checks, and lists ISO 9001, ISO 13485 and Minority Supplier certifications in the footer.

The buyer is an engineer or sourcing lead comparing a few manufacturers. The homepage has to answer three things quickly: what do you make, are you a safe pair of hands, and how do I start.

This is not an agency rebuild. I gave the concept about 2 hours and spent them on the fixes that do the most for customers: the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the improvement.

To show how much that improves, I score every original homepage and every concept on the same 100-point checklist. Most checks are yes or no, and a script runs the technical ones (speed, mobile, accessibility). When in doubt, the point goes to the original site.

The original does real things well. The certifications, the address and the case studies with real product photos are all on the page, and "Let's Start" is a clear orange button. Two notes on the capture. The hero has a YouTube background video that did not load for the capture browser, so a "Video unavailable" label sits over the text. I do not count that as a flaw and I could not see the video. And a cookie bar covers the bottom of the screen, and over a quarter of the phone screen. That is part of the live page's code, so I mention it, but I do not score it. What held the page back is what the first screen says and what it leaves for later.

I looked at five competitors from the concept's research to see what a buyer sees elsewhere.

The gap: quote speed with a named person behind it. The platform sites have the quote path but no face. Amtech has both, its own tools and a CEO with a public track record on its team page, so the concept leads with them together.

I kept Amtech's own navy and orange. I compared two directions: a dark, people-first "operator" look and a brighter, tool-first "platform" look. The first scored 45 and the second 41 on the concept's weighted list, mostly because a real CEO photo and process diagram were already available and the buyer needs trust before novelty.

The first screen and the mobile view, original on the left and concept on the right. The slider at the top of the post compares the first screen up close.

First screen

01Say what and where

"Electronics manufacturing built for resilient scale", a "Troy, Michigan" tag and one line naming product development, PCB assembly, RapidRFQ and supply-chain resilience. The original's paragraph moves to one line.

02Two ranked paths

"Start the Conversation" is the filled orange button, and "Get an Instant Quote" is the darker one beside it. The same two sit in the header. Six top-strip links became four.

03A person and proof up top

Jay Patel, CEO, is named and shown in the hero, with a 30+ years tile and an ISO tile. On the original, no one from Amtech is named on the homepage.

Mobile

01The action in the header

A "Start the Conversation" button is in the phone header and again under the headline. The original mobile screen has one "Let's Start" button, and it sits above the cookie panel.

02A caveat on the comparison

The concept has no cookie bar, so its phone screen looks emptier than a live one would. The buttons are 39 to 46px tall, under the 48px the original's was.

1. 01Replace the slogan with the product. "Electronics manufacturing" and the city beat "the partner you deserve" for a buyer who is comparing five sites.
2. 02Rank your paths. Amtech has a contact button, an instant quote tool, a BOM checker, a podcast and a resource centre. Pick the two a buyer needs first and demote the rest.
3. 03Show a person, by name, on the first screen. The CEO with a public track record is worth more than another service card.
4. 04Put proof above the fold, not at the bottom. Certifications and years in business fit in two small tiles beside the photo.
5. 05Sign your testimonials. "President, Automotive Industry" is a start. A name, a company and a permission to use it turns it into proof.
6. 06Keep the case studies. Real products and real durations ("8-week launch", "20+ year partnership") are what engineers look for, and the concept dropped them.

The concept does not score 100. About 2 hours doesn't fix everything, and the checklist applies to my work too:

• Builder notes are printed on the page. Text such as "Claim surfaced on Amtech's leadership page", "Linked directly from the live footer" and "Built in `projects/buildamtech` as a static redesign" is visible to visitors. All of it has to be rewritten for buyers before anything ships.
• The testimonials are still anonymous. They are trimmed versions of the original's three role-only quotes, and they start about 3,600px down. Names, or at least company types with permission, would help, and one should move up.
• The case studies are gone. The original has five with real product photos. Those were among its best proof, and the concept does not carry them over.
• There is no form. All the buttons link to the original site's Let's Start page. I did not check how many fields its form has.
• Only one phone number is shown, while the original footer lists two, (248) 583-1801 and (248) 583-1802, without saying what the second is. That is a question for Amtech.
• Mobile: text is 16px, buttons are 39 to 46px tall, and Lighthouse is 82. The original scored 26. I would take it above 90, and fix the 3 contrast issues left by the accessibility scan (the original had 35).
• A cookie bar is missing. The original has one, and a real build needs one, which would take space from the first screen.

If I were talking to Amtech, I would say this: the substance is already here. The certifications, the tools, the real case studies and a CEO with a record are more than most small manufacturers have. The old first screen used almost none of it. It led with a slogan and a paragraph about a tech stack, and everything that makes you look real sat below a cookie bar.

The choice I am unsure about is the dark, condensed look. It suits an engineering buyer, but a dark, industrial look is also the safe choice in this trade, and it may not make Amtech stand out. I also dropped the case studies to make room, and I would probably bring them back before anything else. That was a trade-off I made for a cleaner page, and it cost real proof.

What the concept does not solve is a lot. The page still shows anonymous testimonials, it has no form and it has notes to me printed on it. Two hours got the first screen to say what Amtech does and who is behind it. Turning it into a page a buyer can trust, end to end, needs Amtech's own words and names.