With the continual progress in technology, software, web services, and online trends, you don’t want your company’s web presence to be left in the dust. But once you’ve decided that your website or intranet needs to be redesigned, there’s still a long way to go to turn that desire into a reality. Even before you can start planning the actual redesign, there are several hurdles that you’ll need to surmount. Here are five of the most common:
- What is the real purpose of the site? - Before you set about coming up with a flashy new design for your web presence, you need to make sure you’ve defined its business goals and how you want the site to help meet them, including key performance indicators for how it is doing so. Do you want to drive more traffic to your content, or increase revenue through online sales? Without taking the time to define these measurable goals, you may end up with the world’s best-looking site that provides absolutely nothing of value for your company, making the entire redesign effort a waste of time and money.
- Who is the core stakeholder team? – Different departments of your company might have completely different ideas in mind for what they want to see out of a website redesign, but you want to make sure it works for everyone. Before striking out with a plan for the site, you’ll want to build a team of stakeholders who can each make sure their particular needs are in line with your defined business goals.
- Who are the end users? – Is your site going to be public-facing, or is it for internal use only? Do you want to attract new visitors and convert them to paying customers, or are you going to be serving an existing user base? Understanding who is going to be using your site and what they will be doing with it is key; otherwise, you’ll have a great-looking site that nobody ever sees. Furthermore, understanding the value the website brings to the end users will help you build your case for the project’s executive sponsorship. Which brings us to…
- Executive sponsorship – You might see the need for a site redesign, but there can often be a great deal of resistance to change, both from the website’s end users and your executive team. Having an executive on board who understands the importance of the project and is willing to go to bat for it is important, and it can often be the difference between a successful project and one that dies on the vine.
- Budget – This might seem obvious, but it’s very important to understand how much money you’re going to be able to spend on a site redesign, especially since costs can balloon if stakeholders keep trying to add additional functionality throughout the project. You need to know what you’re going to be able to afford from the beginning, which will allow you to plan accordingly and keep from running out of money when the project is only half-complete.
Each of these hurdles will need to be addressed before you can begin to plan for your website redesign. Engaging with a partner like Diagram to assist in surmounting these hurdles early on in the project is critical to ensure the project will gain the appropriate traction internally to get off the ground. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or to find out how we can help you start the process yourself.
