Simple steps to a good redesign - Things to consider before diving head first into a redesign
When it comes to motivations for redesign, there are good reasons and bad. Good reasons include a company or product re-brand or a desire for marketplace re-positioning, updating to web standards or implementation of much-needed new functionality. Bad reasons might include keeping up with fashions, or even just a vague notion that a site needs to be changed – something rather different from knowing through business experience that a site is underperforming or is just plain ugly.
Some major names on the web, such as Amazon, Facebook and eBay, don't redesign their websites anymore. They prefer to roll out any major changes slowly. Small changes prevent these companies from disorienting or losing their customers completely and of course... this"bite size chunks" approach has the benefit of being more friendly to clients pockets.
So, we just get photoshop out right? Wrong...
In my experience a brief market assessment is the only way to start, finding out about the shape, size and scale of a clients market is one of the most important factors in a redesign. To redesign a site you need to know about who will use the site, what they use to view the site and (as far as I am concerned) what keywords do we need to target to get this site launched and running at full pelt. All of this needs careful planning before even considering a design.
SEO & A good marketing strategy goes hand in hand with a redesign
So a client arives and asks me to cost on a site, how long is a piece of string? Firstly I need to know why they are redesigning, they just don't like the look of the site or - happily this is more common - perhaps the site is underperforming.
If the site is underperforming then it may not neccisarily mean it needs a redesign, accessibility, navigation, a refresh to current web standards and core functionality issues may need to be addressed. Is it that the content is not targeting the keywords and phrases that they should be in order to get the site ranking well and pulling in relevent traffic?
Content is King
Cheesy, but true, now it is time to start spending time on your site's content. Once you know more about your users' expectations and needs, start to review and reorganize your website content. After auditing your web content, you'll be able to assess the gaps between the current state of your website and the information architecture that will best serve your users.
Test, test, and you've got it... test
Make sure that the new design works by asking a few members of your target audience to test your ideas and layouts as soon as possible. Test your paper or interactive wireframes (the documents showing the information skeleton of your pages) before picking the fonts or the photos. Try to launch your redesigned home page in private or public beta first.
Content Manage it
A good CMS will make your next redesign easy, by separating content from design. Next time around, you will be able to focus only on redesigning the templates used by the application to produce on the fly the thousands of pages composing your website.
Keep it Fed
It's no good packing up after launch day, ok most of the hard work is over but all you have done is extablished the foundations for your web marketing strategy. Continue to feed and enrich your site with new content and new features.