Redesigning a website is much more than just slapping a fresh coat of paint on it.
A successful redesign can make a huge difference for your business or organization.
Read on to learn what's important (and what's not).
There are several reasons a website redesign can be beneficial.
You might want to generate more leads, more sales, more customers. Maybe you want to raise awareness of your offerings or increase customer retention. If you're a non-profit, perhaps you want to boost donations or get more volunteers.
There are also technical reasons to do a redesign.
Recently, a key reason for many sites is to update to a fully mobile responsive site that works equally well on screens of all sizes, from large desktops, to laptops, to tablets, to smartphones.
Some website owners do a redesign if their current site loads slowly or has other performance problems.
Other owners review their website analytics data or a site visitor survey and discover that people aren't finding what they're looking for, even if it's on the site, and that can be a clue that a redesign would help.
As you can see, there are many reasons to redesign a website. You'll often get multiple benefits even if you start the process with just one goal in mind.
Although every redesign is different, they fall into two main categories.
Minor redesigns are primarily cosmetic and involved updating the overall website theme, refreshing the content, and maybe some minor updates to other elements.
Major redesigns often involve more structural updates, perhaps a new layout, updated typography and images, refreshed or rewritten content, and new functionality.
Any redesign effort should automatically include making the website fully mobile responsive and accessible (which means it's usable by people with visual, cognitive, dexterity, or other challenges).
For a redesign effort to be successful, it's important to have good communications between the website owner and the designer / developer.
The website owner should clearly define the goals before the project starts but it's the designer's responsibility to educate the owner on the latest design techniques and capabilities.
Both parties should commit to putting in the effort required, which often requires periodic conversations during the process and iterative changes as the redesigned site is developed.
A website redesign can be initiated for many reasons. It's often a significant effort in both time and money.
The cost should be seen as an investment with a positive ROI (rather than just an expense) since a site redesigned with specific goals will likely provide much more value than the cost.
Properly redesigned websites can lead to more sales, more customers, and a better visitor experience which leads to repeat visits.
Do you think your website might need a redesign? Is it producing the best results possible? Is it fully mobile responsive and accessible?
Get in touch if you'd like a free, no-obligation evaluation of your current website. We'll send you a detailed report with recommendations on possible improvements.