Hyundai Steel’s previous website had limits in communicating its product competitiveness and corporate activities in a changing market, and could even weigh on its corporate image. In 2024, the company launched a full overhaul of its external-facing websites. Drawing on a deep understanding of B2B companies and Hyundai Motor Group and on its CX and UX consulting capabilities, Saltcake defined Hyundai Steel’s digital direction and carried out a strategic redesign. With the client’s active collaboration, the new official corporate website launched successfully in February 2025.

Through this redesign, Hyundai Steel built a new platform that effectively communicates its core value, “Beyond Steel,” and strengthens its brand and digital experience.

Case Intelligence Summary

Pain Points

We had to keep Hyundai Steel’s expertise while lightening the weight of information customers feel.

Hyundai Steel runs an integrated steelworks with a resource-circulating production system and underpins the group's automotive, construction and shipbuilding businesses, yet its website did not show that standing or its vision of 'the infinite possibilities of steel'. A gap analysis against global steelmakers in China, Japan, Europe and the US revealed two core problems: limited adoption of key global trends, and an information structure that made it hard for visitors to find what mattered. The problem was sharpest in product information — the top seven steelmakers by WSA crude steel capacity clearly separate product brands, product families and industry-specific information, and many even run dedicated product sites. The starting point of the renewal was to keep steel's expertise intact while lightening the weight of information customers feel.

Strategic Lens

We redesigned the information architecture around the customer experience journey.

Because a corporate website is a key touchpoint where customers meet the company, we treated information architecture as a customer-journey problem rather than a navigation one. Building a customer experience journey map on the AIDAS model, we analyzed each user group's goals, behaviors, services and touchpoints to derive UX strategy and detailed UI strategy. The result is a product-discovery structure where product information and business support connect quickly across the journey, and a flow of values from corporate philosophy to sustainability, product and technology innovation and customer trust. For the crucial Awareness and Consideration stages, we added Start Pages that act as onboarding hubs. The first menu opens with founder Chung Ju-yung's words, “Steelmaking is the backbone of Korean industry,” telling visitors first why Hyundai Steel exists.

Creative Approach

“Hyperconnectivity Beyond Steel”: the possibilities of steel expressed through 3D visuals.

Carrying forward the corporate vision “Engineering the Future Beyond Steel,” we set 'Hyperconnectivity Beyond Steel' as the renewal concept, linking the key elements of the website to each other. To break the heavy, rigid mold of steelmaker websites, we made bold expression, flexible structure and clear communication our design principles. The key visual film is built from 3D objects that keep changing shape, size and color as they move through space, and those objects are recomposed with their own meaning for each sub key visual — company, product and technology, IR and support — tying the whole site into one story. Fluid image layouts express the diversity of a global company and the flexibility of steel, while a dedicated icon system of straight lines and even strokes lets visitors tell complex product and process information apart before reading. We also designed the product catalogs in the same language, aligning the online and offline experience.

Delivered Experience

The new corporate website launched in February 2025 and won a Red Dot Design Award 2025.

The new corporate website opened in February 2025 and won a 2025 Red Dot Design Award. The product information pages, which took the most time, follow a journey-led content structure and Narrative Engagement strategy, so the product overview immediately shows its features and why to choose Hyundai Steel. Carbon neutrality and R&D are explained through a flow of empathy, sharing and fact, with video, charts, diagrams and site photography, and instead of scattering the company overview and CEO message across menus, 'The Hyundai Steel Story' connects past, present and future to show the brand at a glance. Alongside the official site, we renewed the media room 'moment', the cyber audit office, and the sites for the Red Angels women's football club and the men's archery team. The project also helped us systematize the problems B2B companies commonly face and how to solve them.