Sphinn - Christine Churchill's: Time For A Site Redesign?

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Christine Churchill's: Time For A Site Redesign?

Went Hot: September 21, 2007 - 9:07 am
Posted By: MiriamEllis 388 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://searchengineland.com)
Category: Water Cooler

Since the 1990s, usability experts and site visitors have been chanting the same web design mantra: Make your site easy-to-use, professional... easy-to-use, professional...

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from Jill 388 days ago #

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Always good stuff from Christine!

Timely for me as we are knee-deep in a complete site redesign. I think 7 years since the last one is certainly reason enough!

Some good points that I've been worried about as well, like will the visitors accept the change. Ours is going to be quite different, so it's definitely scary. But most of the things in Chris's article are definitely true for me, and it needed to be done!

from christine 388 days ago #

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Thanks Jill.

Yeah, I think a lot of people underestimate users reaction to change on a site. Something we try to do to help ease the transition is to find a way to involve the users in the process. With one site we provided a preview of the new site and held a contest for who could find the most problems with the new site. That contest had an amazing response. For the mere cost of a hand held GPS (the prize) we pretty much shook out the site for problems before it launched and gave users an opportunity to adjust to it before the new site went live.

Best of luck on your new design. I'm sure knowing you it will be fantastic. :-)

Christine

from ATeeple 387 days ago #

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I have already shared this post with the rest of my team. Working with a clientele of mostly lawyers, cosmetic surgeons, and dentists, it can be mind-numbing trying to explain why the competitors' "bells and whistles" aren't what you need to worry about. I just reviewed one site on which a client wanted an "innovative design." If I wasn't analyzing the site, I probably would have clicked away since his navigation (like the one described in the post) was hidden (in flash, no less).

The points in this post give me yet another way to try to explain why sometimes you just need a new design (or better yet, you need to start with a clean design to your site). Thanks!