Redesigning the Web

by Les Lee,
Creative Director and Principal
eSiteful Corporation

Your business is changing, as are your business needs. Reaching potential customers or clients requires a firm understanding of their individual needs and a readiness to respond to those needs. Businesses that fail to recognize and take advantage of new ways to reach potential customers or clients risk losing out to businesses that do.

The traditional methods using old-line media, such as print, radio and television advertising, have proven effective and been tested in the fire of time. With the advent of the Internet, however, a new medium became available. Yet up until recently, many marketing and communications professionals have been reluctant to explore its potential for their communications goals. Some have viewed it as unimportant, while others are uncomfortable with what has traditionally been viewed as belonging to the domain of “techies.”

Whatever the reason, the true power and effectiveness of a strong Web presence designed to meet the needs of customers and clients today cannot be overstated. As marketing/communications departments take on the primary responsibility to develop and maintain their corporate communications efforts on the Web, they are finding, unfortunately, that their company site often bears little, if any, resemblance to the sophisticated marketing materials they have been so proficient at developing thus far. In addition to that, complaints abound: users can’t find what they are looking for, content is out of date, links are broken, and new regulations haven’t been met.

Where do you start? What are the traps to look out for? How do you ensure success and keep your sanity in the process?

We hope that the following tips will prove useful as you consider the effectiveness of your current company site and how it fits into your communications and business goals.

Helpful Web Redesign Tips

Define the Business Goals for the Site

Attracting investors, selling products, educating consumers, improving brand awareness, providing customer services, overcoming misconceptions—these are just a few of the possible purposes that your redesigned site can help fulfill. Developing a mission statement that communicates both short- and long-term goals for the site will help ensure that the redesign is a complete success. And determining which goals are for the short term and which are for the long term will help limit the scope of the initial redesign and let you plan for future additions when the time is right. As the saying goes, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

Define the Team

A Web redesign is almost never a single-person effort. Herb Caen, a well-known San Francisco columnist, once said, “If you give a problem to an architect, you’ll get a building for a solution.” Similarly, if you give a problem to engineers, the solution will be software, and if you give it to designers, you will get a graphic look. The kind of site you end up with will vary greatly depending on the team of individuals involved and the level of input that they have. It is important to know the key players involved in the redesign process and to solicit input from all of the important groups that should have input into the project. That said, you also want to keep the number of decision makers to a minimum. Group facilitation sessions and surveys can be a helpful tool in gathering input from as many groups and individuals as possible while keeping the number of decision makers as small as possible.

Don’t Neglect Research and Testing

Graphic designs, like wallpaper, may come and go with the whims and trends of the market, but a well-planned information structure (or “information architecture,” as we like to call it) can last the test of time.

A solid plan upon which to build a lasting site structure requires quality research and testing. Research means gathering information about what competitors are saying and doing on the Web, your client needs and perceptions, usage patterns for your current site and customer expectations. User testing is helpful in gauging how well new designs and structures will work when implemented and can provide useful information to make necessary improvements.

Define Your Audiences

“The customer always comes first” is an old adage, but it is still of great importance to an effective redesign of your Web presence. The customer is foundational to the success of any site redesign. You must understand clearly the needs they have and the ways they think about your company and what you have to offer.

Many companies’ initial efforts in Web design fall into the trap of forgetting whom they are talking to. They organize site information based on their internal understanding of themselves. The industry term for this phenomenon is “navel gazing.” If the site information is organized by departments or based on some other internal structure, chances are the external users of the site will have problems finding what they need. An inconsistency of marketing message and tone with other company media efforts is another negative result of “navel gazing.”

Defining your audiences means understanding their goals. What tasks do they want to accomplish by visiting your site? The more narrowly you can define the goals of your targeted users, the easier it will be to create a structure and prepare content that meets those goals.

There Are No Rules

Stay away from formulaic solutions. When it comes to producing Web sites, the woods are full of hard-and-fast rule makers. Most of these rules can and should be broken. For example, “Users don’t read. Use as little writing as possible.” Or “Users don’t scroll. Don’t make your pages scroll.” Or “There should be at most seven links on each page. More than that and you lose the user.” These are just a few of the “rules” we have heard over the years, and we have found compelling reasons to break every one of them. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, no standardized processes that will let you plug your old Web site into one end and have the perfect new site come out of the other end. A successful Web redesign is the result of hard work and good old-fashioned thinking. Yes, there are helpful guidelines developed from things that worked in the past, underlying principles to keep in mind, and useful techniques that may be called upon to solve given problems, but there are no unbendable rules. They are just too limiting.

Plan for Site Maintenance

No Web site is ever finished, which means that its design must be scaleable and easily updated. Learn about the available methods for keeping a Web site up-to-date and accurate. A wide range of costs is associated with them, from sophisticated content management system software solutions to simple page editors that utilize controlled templates. Some allow for thousands of content contributors with complex workflow processes, and others are best for sites with only a few site contributors. Take the time to understand the options, and the benefits and liabilities of each.

Ask the Right Questions When Choosing a Web Design Company

Many companies and individuals claim expertise in Web redesign. Ask yourself these questions when considering a firm to work with:

• Does the company have a history of producing world-class, award-winning designs?
  
  
• Are you getting the staff that participated directly in creating those designs, and what are they like to work with?
  
  
• Does the company have a process that ensures the design meets the needs of the site’s ultimate users?
  
  
• Does the company have an efficient system in place for project communication?
  
  
• Does the company understand and implement testing practices that ensure the site meets the design goals?
  
  
• Does the company provide a review site where you can try ideas out before implementation?
  
  
• Can the company put an ongoing process in place to ensure the design is used even as site administrative personnel change?
  
  

We hope you’ll find these tips informative and useful as you consider how to harness the power of the Web to reach your marketing and communications goals.