Reasons for site redesign.

One of the main reasons for site redesign is the necessity to make it user-friendly. The user should be attracted both by the design of the site and its user-friendly logic. If the user fails to work on the site, they will not get back to it.

Probable reasons for site redesign:

• To icrease web-site traffic.
• To increase sales of a company.
• To launch a new product in the market.
• To make a site more dynamic, with an upgradable structure and manageable content.
• To eliminate the number of customer calls to technical services.
• To develop user-friendly navigation.
• To simplify the interface of browsing and good purchasing.
   

The importance of usability while redesigning a site.

Why does a site need redesigning? One of the reasons is that the site does not meet the requirements of the users and they fail to find what they are looking for. The team of web-designers should consider the usability: whether the site after the redesign will function in the way it was planned? Whether the customer is willing to get unforgetabe impressions from visiting the site? What can become a stumbling block and cause a problem?

Many companies think that they have already been checking on usability but in reality they are working with focus-groups or conducting on-line surveys. This is not usability testing. Though any gathered responses are of a great value, their results are radically different.

Now the situation in web development is quite different from the one which used to be a few years ago, when the usability was not a real factor in this area. Nowadays, many redesign projects are practically caused by usability requirements. Many of the existing web-sites do not completely meet the needs of the visitors and many of them are difficult to use.

As soon as a sufficient number of web-sites follow the usability principles, they will dominate so much that the rival web-sites will experience the considerable loss of traffic and, as a result, the loss in business sphere. It will result in a real stimulus to redesign the site considering the usability.
 

How is the site redesigned?

How is the site redesigned? As a rule, a group of people employed by a company get together and brainstorm the ideas: requests of some new elements on the site, complaints about the components of the existing site. Unfortunately, this way of generating ideas is completely based on the assumptions, personal and often biased opinions of the people managing the company.

So, it is of primary importance to conduct the usability of the existing site before its redesign.

After that the poll results are analysed.
 

Poll analysis.

The questionnaire is given to the customer at the beginning of the project. These are clear and detailed questions to help the customer formulate the final results. The gathered data enables to understand the audience and site goals.
 

Collection of customer’s materials.

It is necessary to collect as much actual materials as possible: brochures, annual reports, contiguous data, produce samples etc. It is also desirable to look around the premises and equipment of the customer, shops and the existing site. Then we get acquainted with the current marketing material and general marketing plan.
 

Research of the site audience.

The data obtained from customer survey are used to form a clear view of who visit the site, what for and what tasks they perform on the site. Both the target and pass-along audience is revealed. The user profie is created.
 

Business sector analysis.

It is of vital importance to analyse the business sector of the customer both on- and off-line in order to know the situation of their business competitors. It is required to play the role of a qualified user from the customer’s circle. It is needed to visit a number of sites, to perform there different operations, to call customer care services and find out what is successfully and what is unsuccessfully realised in their service.
 

Web-site development.

After the complex of effected arrangements you can proceed to developing the site. Depending on the conclusions made, the first stage of a site development is designing a new site, or restyling the existing one. The HTML-designer makes up the lay-out of the typical site pages. The programmer writes the software code to display the site pages and functioning of the system of site management. After that the site is tested and handed over to the customer.