July 10, 2019
A month or so ago, I shared our quick-start guide to a website redesign. However, I wanted to take a step back and share some big-picture thinking regarding the website redesign process. And it’s a big one: What are the goals of your website redesign?
It seems somewhat of a lofty question but it’s super important to have this discussion at the outset of your website redesign so your site architecture, wireframes, designs, content, etc. all work in coordination to support your goals.
Ask yourself the following three questions to lead you to your overall website redesign goals.
- Who are the personas you’re targeting with your website?
Every company has different personas they’re targeting, so you should make a priority list of yours. Are you focusing on a specific customer segment? Investors? Communities? Students? Prospective employees? Someone else? If you haven’t already identified and built out your personas, it’s an important step that enables you to understand the type of people you’re trying to reach. HubSpot has a great interactive persona template that may be helpful as you work through this exercise (or hey, we can help with that!).
- What action do you want users to take when they visit your site?
Do you want people to make purchases on the website? Do you want them to understand the depth of your expertise? Improve perception within the communities you serve? Answering these questions helps you home in on the structure of the site and the type of content you need to develop. Additionally, it provides insight into the functionality and associated technical requirements needed, such as APIs, plugins, etc.
- Why are you doing a website redesign?
Where do you see strengths within your current site? Are there major downfalls that you have identified as areas you want to improve? Do you have analytical data from Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, FullStory, HotJar, etc. that can give you a solid look at what is and is not working well? Have you done competitive research to see how your website stacks up to others in your category?
Working through these questions helps you gain insights that improve your website redesign outcome and keep your project focused on the right priorities.
Do you want to talk through some of these questions? Email me and we can grab an ice cream sandwich cookie and chat.
