Website
Design Checklist
All websites should be in a
process of being redesigned
or renovated. This guide
will give you some simple
steps or a checklist to
redesigning your website.
Evaluate
Existing Site
What are the success and
failures of your existing
site? Gather a few people to
get an honest evaluation of
your existing site. Write
three successes and three
failures. Then write down
your expectations and future
goals for the new site.
Does It Grab Attention?
Do you think visitors
remember your site? Does it
have something that gets
attention and is memorable?
If he/she does not bookmark
your site what will get them
back? You should give your
visitor something to
remember so they can find
their way back to your site.
Write everything that will
be remembered about your
site.
Research Competitors
What can I learn from my
competitors? Get ideas about
the latest web design,
technology and communication
concepts by looking
analytically at competitor
sites. While you are there
notice some of the keywords
they are using to get the
attention of people coming
to search engines.
Target Audience
Who is the target audience?
Decide whom you want to
target with the site. Who is
your customer or audience?
Try and get into their shoes
and think like they think.
What are their needs or
points of interest? How can
they be served? List the top
three categories of people.
Write three one sentence
descriptions of different
people in your target
audience. Then write a few
words that might interest
these people and cause them
to respond to your site.
Theme - "Look & Feel"
What is the mood or emotion
that you want to
communicate? Decide on the
overall theme and "look and
feel" of the site. For
example: humor,
professional, academic,
family, technical, etc.
Write three adjectives to
describe the way you want
your site to feel.
Analyze Visitors Actions
Are your visitors coming
back and are they spending
time at your site? If your
visitors are not returning
or they are only spending a
few seconds at your site
then something is wrong. A
good site statistics program
or service will help you
know what your visitors are
doing.
Trust & Credibility
What will make your visitor
believe you? Imagine going
into an automobile repair
shop or Doctors office. What
is it that gives you a sense
of trust that your car or
body will be repaired
correctly? A quality site
that does what it says it is
going to do will help. Also
well-written content adds
credibility. Perhaps you can
guarantee your products.
Testimonials by reputable
people or companies are
perhaps the best way to
establish creditability. A
list of previous customers
is helpful. List a person,
company or product that can
be associated with your site
to add trust and
credibility.
Keep Search Engines In Mind
How do I redesign my site
and write my text with the
search engines in mind?
Decide on keywords. This is
a new concept that really
only applies to redesigning
or developing websites. It
may not even apply to all
websites, but to those who
are depending on search
engines this is an important
point. The concept is to get
good rankings on search
engines with different
keywords. Since many pages
on your site can be indexed
with a search engine this
becomes an important
strategy in attracting
visitors.
Analyze Visitor Keywords
Look at your site statistics
and see if the keywords
entered by your visitors are
matching the three target
audiences you just listed.
If not, then the redesigning
needs to help move the site
content, design, and
promotion towards the target
audience. You may be fooled
to think that you are
getting a high number of
visitors but many of them
may not be the kind of
visitors that are important
to your company or
organization.
Make It Easy For Customers
To Do Business With You
Do know what your customer
is thinking? When
redesigning a website it
would be helpful to know as
much as possible about how
your customer is responding
to your site. Is he/she able
to get all the information
needed to make an informed
decision? Are there too many
steps involved in ordering
or getting information? What
obstacles are in the way?
Hire The Right People To
Design Your Website
Will you select a company
with the right mix of
experience and talent? From
the looks of the websites of
many of the companies
offering their design and
development services it
appears that they lack the
aesthetic abilities or are
artistic types that lack the
technical know how to build
a complex site. Your website
is your signature. It is
often the only way for
people to evaluate who you
are. Your profits depend on
the quality of your site.
Don't regret a poor decision
in choosing who redesigns
your website.
Speed
What needs to be compromised
for the sake of speed? Site
speed and server speed is
the major bottleneck on the
Internet. Only so much
information can travel
through a small phone line.
This is what limits the size
of pictures, amount of
sound, and many other
aspects of the Internet.
In redesigning a site this
is an all-to-pervading
thought. It is the rare
exception when the visitor
will wait for a site to
load. Consider the size of
every piece of the site and
determine if it can be made
smaller or eliminated.
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Navigation
Can the visitor find what is
needed quickly and easily?
As a first generation site
grows it often outgrows its
navigation. A good redesign
will help. The new design
needs careful thought so
that the visitor will not
get lost or be more than two
clicks away from what he/she
needs. There are many
factors to consider. Here
are a few examples. Is it
obvious that buttons are
clickable? What links should
always be available to the
user? Is the information
divided into logical
categories and prioritized?
Is old content archived and
easy to find?
Personal Interest
Do you have a place where
visitors can find out what
is behind the scenes? Some
people may want to know who
is behind this website. What
does their office look like?
Revealing this can help
build trust and credibility.
Consider posting a company
newsletter or short
biographies about employees.
Brainstorming
What new and fresh ideas are
missing? Brainstorm with a
team of people to get fresh
ideas. Write down all your
ideas that came from the
brainstorming.
Fresh News
Do your visitors feel they
are visiting an active site?
Sitting in a doctor's
waiting room with old
newspapers might make you
wonder about the competence
of the doctor. In the same
way, visiting a site that
was last updated in 1996 is
a sure way to lose visitor
trust. When redesigning the
website build in ways to
keep it fresh, but keep in
mind that publishing dates
can work against you. Don't
create too much extra work
for yourself unless you are
a workaholic.
Product & Service
Information
Are you making it easy for
your customers to do
business with you? Can they
find what they need quickly?
Can they respond easily?
Your job in redesigning a
website is to make things
easy for visitors and
customers. Carefully think
through what a customer
needs to do to get what he
needs. Is it clear and
simple? Eliminate
unnecessary steps.
Information
Are you adding value to your
visitor? To keep your
visitors returning it is
important to think of how
you can serve him rather
than what my company can get
from him. This is one of the
major shifts in thinking on
the Internet. A printed
brochure transferred to the
Internet might be OK but
serving your
customer/visitor is better.
Content
This is probably why most
people come to your site.
They come to read your
content. It should be clear
and well written. A very
high percentage of websites
are providing poorly written
content. The first
generation of websites were
written by the guy who knew
HTML but not much about
graphic design and writing.
Now people realize that it
takes a team effort to make
a quality web page. Part of
the team should be a good
writer. Redesigning requires
having several outsiders
read your content to see if
it is clear, up-to-date,
accurate and communicates
what it is supposed to. Then
rewrite the content. Another
tip is to provide more than
just your company
information but provide
articles that attract people
to the site.
International Audience
Can your visitors learn from
each other? Collaboration is
one of the most important
advantages being discovered
on the Internet. It is very
common for visitors to have
as much or more knowledge on
the subject than the experts
behind the site.
Collaboration between
visitors can add a lot of
value to your visitor's
experience. If this
information is archived it
can be a good pool of
information for future
visitors.
Graphics & Information
Are the graphics able to
load fast? Do the graphics
communicate a concept? A
website redesign should
involve an evaluation and
possible redevelopment of
graphics and photos. The
present graphics may be
unnecessary or may be
unclear or too large. In any
case each one should be
reconsidered. New software
makes it possible to make
better graphics that are
smaller and load faster.
Components
Is the website taking
advantage of components
like, a discussion forum,
poll, survey, guestbook,
chat and more? These
concepts behind and reasons
for using these components
are well covered in other
points in this website
redesign guide but it us
helpful to think about how
they can be used to improve
your website.
Interaction
Can your visitors exchange
information with you? If you
sell a product can the
customer find out how the
order is progressing? Can
he/she easily get a question
answered? This type of
interaction is making life
easier for everyone.
Why People Now Visit
Why are people visiting your
site? Generally they are
coming for information or
are in need of your
company's product or service
but there can be many other
reasons. List them.
Analyze Popularity Of Pages
Look at your site statistics
and carefully examine the
popularity of the pages. You
may need to redesign the
site so that the pages that
you want visited are the
most popular. There will
always be pages at the
bottom of the list but your
goal should be to make sure
that the important pages are
not at the bottom. Changing
keywords etc. can boost some
of these pages.
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