In an average day we probably see dozens of websites we feel would benefit from some sort of redesign or improvement. Below we’ve compiled a list of 6 good reasons why yours could be one of them.
1. Web sites date
Like many other aspects of design be it film, posters or haircuts, web sites are easily dateable by the way they look. Sometimes this is down to design trends of the time, or because of a change in the technology used.
Ask yourself this question: would you choose the company whose website had not changed since the late ’90s or the company whose site looks modern and professional?
If your website looks out of date, you look out of date. To a customer there’s no difference. If a site is clean, professional and easy to follow your client will feel this way about your business. Keeping your website up to date and fresh in design will reflect positively on your company and hopefully keep you one step ahead of your competitors.
2. Your website no longer reflects your brand
Your brand image is your first impression. Having a brand that reflects your company ethos helps appeal to your target audience.
Having a clear message in a brand helps attract the customer base you want and will encourage them to do business with you. As web sites are quite often the first point of contact for a potential client – your store front – it is essential that it reflects your brand. If you think your website is sending out the wrong message or looks very different to your current brand, it’s time to redesign your site.
3. You want to update the website yourself
There are few things more frustrating than finding out of date information on a website. If your content is incorrect or misleading this could lead to lost sales and contacts. When a website needs to be regularly maintained and updated the answer is to use a content management system (CMS), a site editor.
With a CMS you don’t need a rely on a web designer to access and update your website for you – meaning you’re not limited to their time (and fees). The CMS lets you log in and change content quickly and easily in your own time.
You may already have a CMS for your website – if so, how easy is it to use? Some design firms stick to their own in-house systems or might have set you up with a system that’s inappropriate for your needs. If you’re struggling to get to grips with a complicated control panel then you might benefit from something different.
Websites without a content management system can often be rebuilt to work within a CMS, keeping the design and greatly improving the usefulness of the site.
4. Visitors can’t find what they need
Do you ever get enquiries from customers asking for basic information about your business? “When are you open?”, “What packages do you offer?”, “Do you travel as far as London?” Is this information on your website? If so, how come they haven’t seen it?
The most common reason why visitors miss information is simply that your website is difficult to use. Navigation, structure and accessibility all impact how easy it is for a visitor to get to the content they need. If you’re making this difficult, you need a redesign.
If a site’s navigation is not obvious to the user, frustrates them or makes them feel stupid, then the website is not doing its job properly. Making sure your site is easy to follow will result in a happier web customer and increased business. As a general rule of thumb, if you cannot find a piece of information after 3 clicks, the visitor is more likely to leave the site and try somewhere else.
5. Your website uses Flash
Flash is an Adobe programme which was used to create interactive elements on a website. Flash was in regular use on websites in the early 2000s but more recently to Apple have decided not to support Flash on the popular iPad and iPhone devices. Because of this a general shift has been seen in web design from Flash to more standard technologies such as HTML (the ‘language’ that most web pages are written in).
For galleries and other dynamic elements JavaScript can be used (JavaScript is a lightweight programming language or scripting language that adds interactivity to a site) and its libraries such as jQuery and Mootools.
If your website uses Flash and you want your site to work on mobile devices and tablets, then you may need to discuss a redesign with your web designer.
Using these iPhone friendly technologies also will help improve your search engine visibility, as Flash is not easily read by search engines. Flash is also slow to load, frustrating visitors with weaker internet connections. Though it can be used to make exciting, dynamic moving pages it can also be used by overeager designers to produce complicated, busy and irritating websites – breaking basic usability principles in the process.
6. Your web site is suffering from Old Age (it comes to us all!)
If your website was built more than 5 years ago it was built using old technology. It might be slower and less functional than a newly built web site. Web standards are improved on a regular basis; the web itself is constantly evolving. Advances in coding languages such as HTML and CSS mean that there are now ways of achieving elements such as animations or a simple rounded corner in a more elegant and less resource heavy way.
Web browsers are also continually being updating to follow new guidelines, and as a result some HTML elements have become deprecated or redundant. This means that although your site worked brilliantly when it went live, it may not look as intended in today’s web browsers and it some cases may be broken.
To sum up – just ask yourself these questions:
- Does my site look dated?
- Do my competitors’ sites look and perform better than mine?
- Do I want to be able to update my site myself?
- Is my site slow or broken?
- Am I frustrated by the navigation?
- Is the branding out of date?
If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, it’s time to redesign your site!
