November 2008

It’s fairly common for a prospective or existing client to come to say “we need to redesign our web site.”  The first question we ask is “Why?”

Occasionally the answer is motivated by something technical:

• Our IT department has decided we’d be better off if we changed over to Ruby on Rails
• We’re thinking doing a site in Silverlight would differentiate us
• We can no loner maintain our site because the guy who built it quit

More often than not the answer is subjective or ambiguous:

• It’s time for a change
• The last redesign we did was 2 years ago
• Our new CEO’s wife doesn’t like the color blue we’re using

What we almost never hear is that the decision is based on a business goals or performance metrics. Examples:

• We used to convert about 4% of our browsers to buyers, but we’re far below 3% for the last six months and we feel it’s due to a direct competitors’ superior user experience
• We have a full Flash site and can’t get a foothold in organic search which we’ve determined is preventing us from a great deal of potential business
• Our offline and online brands aren’t in sync; we think if we can get the two in parity we would have better conversion and retention of customers

When is the right time to redesign your web site? It could hinge on a number of things.  If its along the lines of the reasons just above this paragraph, you’re good to go. Is your web site developer’s departure or a general feeling that “it’s time for a change” a good enough reason?  It could be.*

My advice?  If you’re going to expend the time and energy to redesign your site, take advantage of the opportunity and ensure the money you spend is an investment. Whatever your industry, if you have a web site it serves some sales, marketing or support role for your company. Regardless of how you enter into a site redesign, consider this as a high-level guide for your redesign process:

1. Reflect on your current site and what you hoped it would provide your organization
2. Review any metrics you have on how your site currently performs
3. Understand what your visitors motivations are and how they can be serviced – be objective – this is about your visitors, not you
4. Clearly define what success would mean to your organization after the redesign (such as we’d have better visibility online, our content would be more engaging, or we’d reach new prospects and have an opportunity to create a dialog with them)
5. Map success metrics to key performance indicators that are measurable (such as a 25% increase in traffic within three months, a 10% decrease in bounce rate at launch time,  or 3,500 new email newsletter sign-ups by end of year)
6. Create guiding principles for your site redesign design based on your visitors, goals, and measurable performance indicators
7. Build your new site by the principles above
8. Put performance measurement tools in place so the new site can be evaluated and improved upon over time

What’s above is oversimplified; a general approach that will help direct your redesign process towards measurable success. If you are getting close to a site redesign, there’s several great books out there that can provide you with a complete, detailed process.  If you’re interested in a recommendation, just ask.  And, if you need a company to lend you a hand, I know of one of those, too.

* If your site is designed for a maximum screen size of 640×480 pixels and no more than 256 colors, and the CGI programmer that’s held it together for the past ten years quit to start a one man pilgrimage to acquire the last card to complete his Magic, The Gathering set then yes, you should absolutely redesign your site.

{ 2 comments }