'ReDesign' is not a Dirty Word

What do you Need to Know Before Redesigning Your Website?

The only constant is CHANGE. At least as far as your Website is concerned.

Some sites - like waves in an ocean - change many times every hour.

A few change - like the tides - once or twice in a day.

And many remain like stagnant backwaters - constant, changeless, desolated, ignored and largely unvisited!

Websurfers are an impatient lot. They thrive on excitement, instant gratification, constant variety and change. Nothing bores them more than a Website that stays the same day after day, week after week. Portals and community sites understand this fact and take advantage of it. Design changes come thick and fast. Website redesign is a way of daily - or at least monthly - life for them.

So the question is not WHETHER your site needs a redesign but instead WHEN and HOW OFTEN? In this article, I'll discuss the many issues to be thought out, the many questions to be answered, and the different steps to be taken to redesign your Website.

Who needs this information anyway?

You do!

If you are a Web developer who designs Websites or consults with clients on their Web projects, you will doubtless be called in to modify and improve a site or maintain one needing frequent updates. If you own a Website or a business that has an online presence (and which ones don't these days!), this information is invaluable when you plan improvements to your site.

So let's get started. There are just three questions to ask yourself:

1. What's wrong with your site now?
   
2. What can be improved?
   
3. How best can you do it?

What's Wrong With Your Site?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But then it's almost always broke. Or about to. So be wise and change - before you are forced to. There are many aspects to test for faults and drawbacks, and many ways to do it. You could:

• ask for feedback from users and visitors to your site
• conduct a formal usability test
• hire a consultant

Which you elect to use depends upon your needs, budget and the complexity of your business. Amazon.com might justifiably hire a consultant for $5000 an hour. You might do just as well for your niche Website with a feedback questionnaire to site visitors.

With any of these methods some basic principles remain the same.

• Define the goals of your study before you start. If you want to see how well your site sells products to customers, focus on how quickly and easily users can locate a product they are looking for, how painlessly they can complete the ordering process, how effectively visitors are converted into paying customers, how many potential customers are lost (leave your site without buying anything) and how likely they are to return to buy something again.
• Determine your user profile. Then evaluate your site using a group as similar as possible to the ultimate user. If your site markets health resorts for rich American retirees, don't test it out with teenagers in Europe.
• Schedule the project and study. Determine a convenient time and place. Make sure your Website is up and running normally at that time.
• Prepare a set of questions or define a set of tasks that volunteers must go through. For instance, you could ask them to order 2 pairs of green nylon socks of a particular brand off your site and see how easy (or difficult) it is to do.
• Evaluate the data generated by the study with a critical eye. How can you improve each step, make things easier for users?
• Implement changes. Act on the information you have received.
• Repeat the process again. Fine tune, tweak, modify - until you are near- perfect!

What To Improve Upon In a Redesign

Just about EVERY aspect of a Website can be improved upon in one way or another.

The philosophy behind a redesign should be:

• respect for visitors to your Website
• near maximum accessibility
• a clean, attractive, distinctly recognizable appearance
• better scalability and ease of future maintenance

Before planning a redesign it may be worthwhile taking a hard look at the following areas:

• Design, layout, look-and-feel, brand
• Usability and navigation
• Audience reach
• Future expandability
• Ease of promotion
• Integrating new content, features and technology
• Revenue generating models