1. September 2, 2011
Kelli Shaver
7 Factors to Consider When You’re
Redesigning Your Website
The Web Design Usability Series is the way your site functions? Do you simply want a
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These are all important factors to consider, so before
you start, make a detailed list of what it is you wish
to accomplish during the redesign. This will help
guide you through the rest of the process and make
sure you stay focused on the end goal.
2. What Type of Redesign Do You
Need?
Now that you’ve decided exactly why you want
to redesign your site, it’s time to decide just how
T
here are very few, if any, websites on the Inter- far down the rabbit hole you need to go. Perhaps
net that don’t undergo at least a minor facelift a small change in visuals and content is all that’s
at some point in their lifecycle. If you own a necessary. On the other hand, you may need to add
business with a web presence, at some point, that new features or completely redo your underlying
site will need to be redesigned, whether it’s due to code base. Depending on your needs and budget,
the changing nature of your business, or purely for a large overhaul may be out of the question, or it
aesthetic reasons. may be the most cost-effective long-term solution,
so take a moment to think about your needs going
Redesigning your company site can be a major un- forward and work with your developer to strike a
dertaking, so we’ve put together a helpful list of balance that best meets them.
things to keep in mind when considering a redesign.
3. What Does and Doesn’t Work
1. Why Are You Redesigning? Currently?
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This is perhaps the most deceptively complex, yet No matter how large or small the redesign, chances
obvious question of all. Before undergoing any re- are there will be some elements of your existing site
design, however, it’s important to understand what that work very well and some that don’t work at all.
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it is you wish to accomplish. Are you unhappy with Now is the time to go through your site and identify
http://mashable.com/2011/09/02/website-redesign-factors/
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2. September 2, 2011
7 Factors to Consider When You’re Redesigning Your Website
these elements. Maybe your content is too verbose If you’ve undergone changes to your brand and com-
or your sales page isn’t very user-friendly. On the pany image, those changes need to be reflected in
other hand, that photo gallery and the blog may be your site, even if the only updates are visual. Keep
big-ticket items that do really well for your image your logos updated and consider a color-overhaul if
and bring in lots of traffic. Some elements will need the corporate image or philosophy has shifted. Your
to remain (though possibly given a makeover), some website is often the first impression people get of
will need to be cleaned up and some will have to go. your business, so it should grow and mature right
Break your site down into its key components and along with the rest of your brand identity.
then compare those with the goals you decided on
in step one and the overall vision for your web site. 6. When and How Should You
If something doesn’t fit, it’s out. Launch Your Redesign?
4. How Is Your Site Being Used? When and how you launch your redesign can have
a big impact on your traffic and in generating buzz
Along these same lines, don’t forget to take a look about your new site and your product. Maybe you’re
at how users are currently interacting with your simply making improvements and want to slowly
site. This will help you identify great content and roll out changes over time and unannounced. This
problem areas. Study your traffic statistics and site unobtrusive rollout won’t give you a lot of buzz, but
analytics for information on things such as entry it will still accomplish your goals of improving the
and exit pages, sales conversions, and search engine site’s performance and the user’s experience. On the
keywords. This will help you to understand how other hand, a big relaunch around the holidays or
visitors find your site and what they do once they at the start of a big promotion, or when announcing
get there. While you’re studying those statistics, a major change in the way your business operates
also have a look at details like screen resolution can both draw traffic and generate more interest.
and browser usage. This will help your developer
determine what technical specifications your site 7. How Do I Make the Transition
should meet and whether a separate mobile version Smoother?
of your site is recommended, among other things.
Most people are a little intimidated by change. If you
5. Has Your Brand or Company have a site that gets a lot of repeat traffic, a sudden,
Image Changed? drastic change in form and function can be a bit
off-putting to some users. Further, you don’t want
this drastic shift to damage search engine rankings
and suddenly destroy any and all backlinks you may
have gathered over the years.
Try and keep vital elements of your site similar to
their existing counterparts, such as the main navi-
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gation and header. Usually, your redesign should
strive to be an evolution of your existing site, not a
dramatic replacement. If the change is dramatic,
make sure it’s clear and give your users a blog post
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or news announcement discussing the changes.
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3. September 2, 2011
7 Factors to Consider When You’re Redesigning Your Website
Similarly, you want to make things easy for the
search engine spiders, as well. Moved content should
be redirected via 301 redirects, for instance, and
error pages should be helpful and transmit the cor-
rect header information and meta data. For human
visitors, make sure those error pages contain helpful
information that is, where possible, relevant to the
content the user was trying to access.
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