Quick guide: How to redesign your website?

You can no longer tolerate your website. First the design was done in 2012, no need to tell it needs a considerable renewal. Secondly, you extend your product range meanwhile, and it does not represent your current business anymore.

Therefore, you aim to redesign your website before the end of the year. It will enable your organization to improve your online presence, and raise your brand awareness. Update your content and redefine your user experience (UX colloquially speaking) is definitely what you need to do to properly address your customer.
After all, time flew in 6 years, trends have moved, and your organization’s goals have evolved. For all these reasons, you are absolutely right to think it is time for a change in design and content, so why not give it a go?

This is a quick guide to know how to redesign your website

 

Renew its website may be a difficult task, and it is even more true for people who are not used to manage digital projects : so, where to start with? Subforce gathered some useful information and highlighted the key elements you have to know before launching your redesign project.

 

To achieve your website redesign, the first need, and essential one, is to scrutinise your current website, so as to identify possible improvements and distinguish what is working, what can be reuse, what must be remove, etc… For sure there is some good elements of your current website that you should keep. Yes, doing a redesigning means to start over, but it is a good foundation to know the strengths and weaknesses of your site.
You can check for example on Google Analytics the most visited pages, your bounce rate (and why does your customer leave the page there?), the period when your customers visit most your website and where do they come from. Lastly, ask yourself what is it promising to consumers, and compare it to your value proposition. It should be consistent.

 

“List the strengths and weaknesses of your current website”

 

This way you already have some general guidelines, and you can pass to the next step !

Once you have compiled the list of information of the first step, let move to the second part of the redesign, and one of the most important (not only for a redesign, but in your business in general).
It is vital to have a clear vision of your BUYER PERSONA. Who are you addressing to when you promote your services or products? You should establish a kind of identity card of your client, to help you define the redesign guidelines. Know your client, through surveys, your Google Analytics account, or thanks to telephone interviews.
Gender, age, social-professional group, …
Job and experience
Describe a typical day to understand their habits and customs

What are the problems they are facing? How do you help them to deal with it?
What matters for them? and what are their goals?
Where are their searching for information and help when they have a doubt?
What are their main criticism against your product or service ?

“It is vital to have a clear vision of your BUYER PERSONA.”

 

 

Third step : once you gathered all this information, you ought to establish your objectives.

Why do you want to redesign your website? Make a list of what makes you think it is time to change : obsolete design, to update your offer, a high bounce rate, etc… If you have changed your product or services, are you still targeting the same client? If you realize that your target customer have changed, go back to step 2 to establish the Buyer persona. Reacting to those suggestions, set yourself a realistic objective with the magic formula S.M.A.R.T. : keep in mind it has to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed.

In terms of ressources, what are you willing to invest ? Do you have time, do you have the knowledge, do you have skilled labour force? Have you got a specific budget allocated to this kind of project? This kind of details will help you to think clearly when it comes to set up your website redesign, more precisely if you have the time and the knowledge to do it internally, or if you should outsource dealing with a service provider. (Request your quote!)

 

“Set yourself a realistic objective with the magic formula S.M.A.R.T.”

 

 

We are getting to the heart of the matter, with the fourth step : the conception. Speaking specifically of the website conception could be quite hard, because it strongly depends on each objectives of a company. Here is a little brainstorming of all topics you should review whilst drafting the technical specifications of the redesign.
Which tree structure are you going to choose for your website ? (that is to say how to organize the menu, with for instance: Home page, Portfolio, Services, About us, Contact)
What content ? Select it carefully, get to the essential only, and focus on your sales arguments.
Which design for desktop and mobile (what message do you want to convey? what colors do you want to use, which styles, should it be illustrations, geometrically shaped,... what about your logo, do you want to refresh it? Think also to refresh your commercial material such as email templates, business cards, etc…)
Think about your user experience and your user interface. Namely UX and UI, those two concepts are not just another fad. They benefit great interface realization, making it attractive, but also practical and easy to use.

“Critically examine your results on your website, analyze your mistakes and your weaknesses, but also know your strengths.”

 

Eventually, here comes the last step of the implementation of the new version of the website.
You could launch your website with a beta version to have the feedback of your users first, and then improve it making the changes that seems to be crucial to your customer.
Or else you could implement two versions of your website, and launch the one that has the most success: the point is to use the one the converted most. This one is called A/B test.
Critically examine your results on your website, analyze your mistakes and your weaknesses, but also know your strengths. You can always remedy the situation if you analyse what’s wrong !

 

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