Neat Redesign

Redesigning a website is something inevitable. You think of it from time to time and try to postpone it to have a really good reason to redesign. Most probably, you really have no idea how to redesign. So how do you tackle the beast of redesigning your site?

Since the Dark Ages of the Internet (especially then), site redesigns were so common and yet not every redesign is a complete success? Why would that be? Wouldn’t people learn to redesign their sites to make them successful? Somewhat.

Basically, the reasons to create a new look for the website would include:

• the site aged and required replacement
• someone just had to do something over the website (most probably for the above reason)
• the boss wanted a new website

But the real reasons to redesign a website should be:

• the site doesn’t convert well
• current site structure doesn’t allow adding more content
• current site back-end won’t allow adding new technologies
• numerous visitor complains on site usability and accessibility
• a new, more stable and efficient technology appeared

But what most site owners don’t take into account is how to redesign a website - should it be done at once or gradually?

Certainly, something only has to be done at once, like changing the underlying technologies. But most things should be done gradually, like changing site navigation, page structure or adding more content.

Here is why redesigning a website step by step is useful:
- your repeat visitors will still be familiar with the site and will be able to absorb the new changes easily
- you can track the results of the change (and continue working in the direction or undo the change)
- the site owner can do this (on small business websites anyway)

This doesn’t mean that you should redesign your website completely if it doesn’t convert at all or has low amount of visitors. You simply need to choose whether to redesign step by step or not.

Read more about the iterative process of redesign at Brainsparks.

Update: Read more on what to do when redesigning a site.

Related posts:

• Services
• Redesigning a site with CSS to improve business
• What to change during a site redesign

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 11:42 am and is filed under Redesign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.