At the heart of every redesign project is a fundamental question: 'should we build on what we have, or introduce something completely new?'. There is no simple answer of course: a multitude of factors influence the direction a project should take, and some of those have far greater strategic importance than the website alone. But in order to achieve the desired end result, we need to establish where on the evolution – revolution scale a project should be positioned.
Sometimes, decisions are made before the website redesign project is commissioned that determine its ultimate direction. A merger might demand a drastic change in direction, as might a comprehensive rebranding and repositioning programme.
On the other hand, more typical issues like a lack of commercial performance, poor feedback from target customers, or increasingly stiff market competition all demand the introduction of improvements. Here, a drastic change of direction may still be called for, or more subtle changes may need to be made.
It is just as important to consider the redesign needs of a site with none of the previous issues. It may be at least as, or more, important for a market leader to redesign: resting on the laurels of success is a guaranteed route to failure.
Often the greatest leaps, the most revolutionary redesign solutions, are borne of opportunity and potential rather than poor performance. Repositioning a successful brand is easier than repositioning a weak one, as there is a stronger platform in place to start with. Not to mention the fact that budgets are likely to be larger and resources more plentiful.
Never underestimate the importance of redesigning a highly successful website: it will often be the site used as the market benchmark and competitors can quickly catch up.
When a site is failing to achieve its objectives, difficult issues often need to be identified and resolved, and sometimes the recommendation will be to revolutionise the site: effectively reinventing the site and relaunching it in a completely new form. This reinvention may be its only chance of success, as it has low customer loyalty and even lower levels of satisfaction.
But what if, as is most often the case, the site is 'doing alright'? Some customers like it, most find it adequate, and only a few find it really unsatisfactory. The majority of today's websites, particularly those whose main purpose is the provision of information, fall into this category. They do nothing exceptionally well, and nothing exceptionally badly.
Redesign solutions for these sites often fall at the evolutionary end of the scale, demanding a distinct improvement that makes the satisfactory areas good, radically improves (or removes altogether) the weak areas, and adds at least a little that is exceptional. They need to bring existing customers along with them, and sometimes too radical a change will leave them behind.
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