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WEBSITE
REDESIGN CHECKLIST |
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Websites need to be
in a process of constant redesign and
renovation. Here's our checklist:
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EVALUATE
EXISTING SITE |
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What are the success
and failures of your existing site?
Gather a few people to get an honest
evaluation of your existing site. Write
three successes and three failures. Then
write down your dreams and goals for the
new site. |
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BRAINSTORMING |
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Are new and fresh
ideas missing? Brainstorm with a team of
people to get fresh ideas. Write down
ideas that emerge from the
brainstorming. |
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REASON WHY
PEOPLE VISIT |
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Why people visit
your site? They are coming for
information or are in need of your
company's product or service. But there
can be many other reasons that you may
not have exploited. List those reasons. |
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DOES IT GRAB
ATTENTION? |
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Do you think
visitors remember your site? Does it
have something that gets attention and
is memorable? If he/she does not
bookmark your site what will get them
back? You should give your visitor
something to remember so that he can
find his way back to your site. Write
down the one thing that will be
remembered about your site. |
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RESEARCH
COMPETITORS |
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What can I learn
from my competitors? Get ideas about the
latest web design, technology and
communication concepts by looking
analytically at competitor sites. While
you are there notice some of the
keywords they are using to get the
attention of people coming to search
engines. |
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TARGET AUDIENCE |
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Who is the target
audience? Decide whom you want to target
with the site. Who is your customer or
audience? Try and get into their shoes
and think, like they think. What are
their needs or points of interest? How
can they be served? List the top three
categories of people. Write three or one
sentence descriptions of different
people in your target audience. Then
write a few words that might interest
these people and cause them to respond
to your site. |
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THEME AND 'LOOK
& FEEL' |
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What is the mood or
emotion that you want to communicate?
Decide on the overall theme and "look
and feel" of the site. For example:
humor, professional, academic, family,
technical, etc. Write three adjectives
to describe the way you want your site
to be felt. |
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CONTENT |
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This is probably why
most people come to your site. They come
to read your clear, well written and
fresh content. Your team should have
good writers. Redesigning requires
having several outsiders read your
content to see if it is clear,
up-to-date, accurate and communicates
what it is supposed to. Then rewrite the
content. Another tip is to provide more
than just your company information, but
provide articles that attract people to
the site. |
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TRUST AND
CREDIBILITY |
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What will make your
visitor believe you? Imagine going into
an automobile repair shop or a
physician's clinic. What is it that give
you a sense of trust that your car or
body will be repaired correctly? A
quality site that does what it says, is
going to convey trust. Also well-written
content adds credibility. Testimonies by
reputed people or companies are perhaps
the best way to establish creditability.
A list of previous customers is helpful.
List a person, company or product that
can be associated with your site to add
trust and credibility. |
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KEEP SEARCH
ENGINES ON MIND |
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How do I redesign my
site and write my text with the search
engines in mind? Decide on the keywords
and the meta content. This is a new
concept that really applies only to
redesigning or developing websites. It
may not even apply to all websites, but
it is important for those websites that
depend on search engines . The idea is
to get good rankings on search engines
with different keywords. Since many
pages on your site can be indexed with a
search engine this becomes an important
strategy in attracting visitors. |
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ANALYZE
VISITORS' KEYWORDS |
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Look at your site
statistics and see if the keywords
entered by your visitors match with the
three target audiences you just listed.
If not, then the redesigning needs to
help move the site content, design, and
promotion towards the target audience.
You may be fooled to think that you are
getting a high number of visitors but
many of them may not be the kind of
visitors that are important to your
company or organization. |
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ANALYZE
POPULARITY OF PAGES |
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Look at your site
statistics and carefully examine the
popularity of the pages. You may need to
redesign the site so that the pages that
you want to be visited are the most
popular. There will always be pages at
the bottom of the list but your goal
should be to make sure that the
important pages are not at the bottom.
Changing keywords etc. can boost some of
these pages. |
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ANALYZE
VISITORS' ACTIONS |
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Are your visitors
coming back and are they spending enough
time on your site? If your visitors are
not returning or they are spending only
a few seconds at your site, something's
wrong. A good site statistics program or
service will help you know what your
visitors are doing. |
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NAVIGATION |
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Can the visitor find
what is needed quickly and easily? As a
first generation site grows, it often
outgrows its navigation plan. A good
redesign will help. The new design needs
careful thought so that the visitor will
not get lost or be more than two clicks
away from what he/she needs. There are
many factors to consider. Here are a few
examples. Is it obvious that buttons are
clickable? What links should always be
available to the user? Is the
information divided into logical
categories and prioritized? Is old
content archived and easy to find? |
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PERSONAL
INTEREST |
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Do you have a place
where visitors can find out what is
going on behind the scenes on your
website? Your customers may want to know
more about your company and its
workings. Revealing this can help build
trust and credibility. A company
newsletter or short biographies about
employees could help. |
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FRESH NEWS |
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Do your visitors
feel they are visiting an active site?
Sitting in a doctor's waiting room with
old newspapers might make you doubt the
competence of the doctor. In the same
way, visiting a site that was last
updated in 1996 is a sure way to lose
visitor trust. When redesigning the
website, build it in ways to keep it
fresh, but keep in mind that publishing
dates can work against you. Don't create
too much extra work for yourself unless
you are a workaholic. |
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PRODUCT AND
SERVICE INFORMATION |
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Are you making it
easy for your customers to do business
with you? Can they find what they need
quickly? Can they respond easily? Your
job in redesigning a website is to make
things easy for visitors and customers.
Carefully think through what a customer
needs to do to get what he needs. Is it
clear and simple? Eliminate unnecessary
steps. |
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INFORMATION |
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Are you adding value
to your visitor? To keep your visitors
returning it is important to think of
how you can serve him rather than what
your company can get from him. This is
one of the major shifts in thinking on
the Internet. A printed brochure
transferred to the Internet might be OK
but serving your customer/visitor is
better. |
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INTERACTION |
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Can your visitors
exchange information with you? If you
sell a product can the customer find out
how the order is progressing? Can he/she
easily get a question answered? This
type of interaction makes life easier
for everyone. |
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COLLABORATION |
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Can your visitors
learn from each other? Collaboration is
one of the most important advantages of
being discovered on the Internet. It is
very common for visitors to a site to
have as much of more knowledge on the
subject than the experts behind the
site. Collaboration between visitors can
add a lot of value to your visitor's
experience. Discussion forums allow this
exchange of information. If this
information is archived it can be a good
pool of information for future visitors. |
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INTERNATIONAL
AUDIENCE |
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If all or part of
your audience is global then you need to
consider a few things. First, many
places don't have fast Internet access
so the site may need to have fewer
Graphic and other slow loading items.
Second, monitor sizes in some countries
average 14"-15". The design and layouts
need to take this into consideration.
Finally, many phrases and other cultural
references may not make sense, for
example the phrase "ball park" /
estimate only, makes sense to an
American. |
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SPEED |
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What needs to be
compromised for the sake of speed? Site
speed and server speed is a major
bottleneck on the Internet. Only so much
information can travel through a small
phone line. This is what limits the size
of pictures, amount of sound, and other
aspects of the Internet. In redesigning
a site this is an all-pervading thought.
It is the rare exception when the
visitor will wait for a site to load.
Consider the size of every piece of the
site and determine if it can be made
smaller or eliminated. |
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Graphic AND
ANIMATION |
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Are the Graphic able
to load fast? Do the Graphic communicate
a concept? A website redesign should
involve an evaluation and possible
redevelopment of Graphic and photos. The
present Graphic may be unnecessary,
unfocused or too large. In any case each
one should be reconsidered. The use of
newer software like streaming content
makes it possible to include Graphic
that are smaller and loads faster. |
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COMPONENTS |
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Is the website
taking advantage of components like
discussion forums, polls, surveys,
guestbook's, chat and more? The reasons
for using these concepts are well
covered in other points in this website
redesign guide, but it is helpful to
think about how they can be used to
improve your website. |
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MAKE IT EASY
FOR CUSTOMERS TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU |
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Do know what your
customer is thinking? When redesigning a
website it would be helpful to know as
much as possible about how your customer
is responding to your site. Is he/she
able to get all the information needed
to make an informed decision? Are there
too many steps involved in ordering or
getting information? What obstacles are
in the way? |
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HIRE THE RIGHT
PEOPLE TO REDESIGN YOUR WEBSITE |
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Will you select a
team with the right mix of experience
and talent? Most companies that offer
design and development services are
one-person operations. They are either
tech-gurus and lack aesthetic
sensibilities or they are artistic but
lack technical knowledge ; then how to
build a complex site? Building or
redesigning a website is best done with
a team. A team can synchronize their
abilities and create a much better site.
Your website is your signature. It is
often the only way for people to
evaluate who you are. Your profits
depend on the quality of your site.
Don't regret a poor decision in choosing
who redesigns your website. |
