You should redesign your website every few years or so to keep it from going stale and obsolete. Website redesign is not only capable of giving your website that modern edge you desire; it is also capable of keeping your website optimized by doing away with features that no longer deliver the expected ROI and incorporating those that do.
That idea reads smoothly on screen, doesn’t it? But the reality can actually be a lot messier.
What really happens with website redesign usually involves a complete overhaul; a throwing away of the old and bringing in the new. Website owners usually end up with a website that shares nothing in common with the previous one apart from a domain name.
But that’s not even the biggest problem with this standard approach. The biggest problem is really the fact that nobody—not even the experts doing the redesign—can accurately predict how the audience will react to the changes made.
Nobody can predict if the changes done to the copy, headlines, designs, and calls-to-action will help generate or convert leads. Your effort at website redesign is actually a shot in dark, an intelligent guess, one whose sole positive lies with the experience of those involved.
To illustrate the point: two high profile examples of website redesign gone wrong in recent years involve Yahoo and CNN.
Sometime in the not-too-distant past Yahoo released two redesign updates within two months of each other which resulted in a massive outcry from users, including a petition involving 40,000 signatures demanding the old site back.
CNN, in their case, redesigned their website in order to create a better experience for their mobile browsers, but ended up with a homepage that takes 20 seconds to load on average, pages that appear longer, and a desktop display that is no longer intuitive—all huge costs, even after considering the advantage of better mobile browsing.
The fact is as far as website redesign is concerned, the old way is no longer viable.
It’s time for another option.
Enter Evolutionary Design
Evolutionary design consists of updating your website design in a controlled and measured manner using A/B testing to gauge the effect each design update has on conversions and sales.
In other words, evolutionary design takes baby steps; feeling the floor beneath before settling in for the next step.
And the process works…for obvious reasons:
Rather than shocking and possibly scaring visitors away with a totally different user experience, evolutionary design eases change in gently, one step at a time. The redesign process is analytical; measuring feedback from users to get a clear picture of what really needs changing, and measuring the impact of each change as it comes along.
And although it could be slower than the old redesign method, evolutionary design can actually be implemented rapidly over a set period of time as updates are successively rolled out, tested, and implemented.
Overall, it’s a process that allows users the necessary time to adjust to each change, and results in an ever-improving user experience which in turn results in a more successful site.
Never Redesign Your Website Again
You no longer have to overhaul your website and cross your fingers hoping for the best. In the past that was the only option you had. Now, with evolutionary redesign, you can learn from your audience and find out what they want, so that using small changes you can ultimately build a website that works for both them and your business.
We would love to chat with you about evolving your website design and measuring the impact it can have on your ROI.
