Your Research Plan to Website Redesign Endeavors

As the new trends come by and certain changes in the design and functionality become a necessity, we are once again given the responsibility of redesigning the website. Sometimes these redesigns are humongous and other times they are just minor changes in the overall design that requires the big ones in the functionality only.

Think of the websites you have been using for the past, say, five years. Notice how the functionality has changed, UX has improved and some even have an entirely different homepage.

So this means that every industry is constantly updating their websites. Hence, it is clear that regardless of the industry you are in, if you have a digital presence, a redesign is a must every now and then.

Having said that, there are so many resources out there explaining the elements that require redesigning. But very few of them are thorough with a research plan that takes place in the background of those impeccable designs that we see today.

Today’s post is all about that research plan on redesigning your website that includes helpful tips and tricks to get you started. Let’s see how you can go about it, right from the beginning:

Redesign objectives

Why do you really want to go for a redesign? This is an important question and is like a root to all other questions below that you can answer for your way forward with redesigning endeavors.

• Do you need to go mobile (responsive website)?
• Is there a particular customer pain point (e.g. improved navigation, efficient easy-to-find features)?
• Does your website need to support the new look of your brand?
• Is your infrastructure aging and outdated?
• Are there any new trends that seems fruitful in the future?

Discover and define

Once you have answered all the questions mentioned above, this is the step where you carefully gather all your answers. Jotting them together in one place will help you to figure out exactly why redesigning is happening.

• Insights: Next, start gathering insights from the visitors/users of the website. You can do that by the queries that they have been generating, or some suggestions that they have been providing with.
• Analytics: With the help of analytics, you can figure out exactly what pages they are staying on longer. From here you can discover what makes them stick to one page and not on others.
• Competitive analysis: A competitive analysis in this regard can facilitate you with even better results. Look at competitors’ websites to see what they have incorporated that is helping them to achieve results. Take a closer look at the features, functions and how user-friendly they have made the website. The competitor evaluation turns out to be the greatest help in understanding the perspective of the end users.
• Problem statement: At the end of the day, your business exist to solve a problem or two of your customers. Focus on the problems at hand that follows up with the user insights and how you can fix them for the users.

Design and develop

So this was put at the very end of the actual plan because it is dependent upon the findings mentioned above. If there isn’t enough information available then the overall design and development will take place individually and it will end up to be a loss of time, energy and money if it doesn’t give out fruitful results.

Designing and development is not really the tricky part. What gets most UX designs fail is their inability to understand the real redesigning need. The rest is all a piece of cake. Simply hire a web design agency to do  the job and you’re good to go.

Final Word

Redesign projects are happening in every industry. Every two years or so, a website is in need of a fresher look and feel to cater the customers in the best possible way as it complies with the latest advancements. The key is to thoroughly do your homework and learn from each project.

And lastly, don’t just assume things, measure them and there will be no surprises – only truthful and fruitful results.

Use the tips above to get started with your next redesign project with the right attitude and information. Good luck!