7 Steps to Successful Web Site Redesign

Jacek Utko is a newspaper designer. He has designed/redesigned many newspapers in Central and Eastern Europe and won world awards. He believes strongly in “giving power to the designers” and that designers should embed their personal vision into the work they do, even at the expense of being a team player.

Utko’s words and work are compelling, and I especially like his 7 Steps to Success. He is talking about 7 steps to success if you are redesigning a newspaper, but when I first read the 7 steps I thought they were a good jumping off point on 7 Steps to Successful Web Site Design. So I’ve taken his 7 steps and modified them to fit the design of websites:

7 Steps To Successful Web Site Design or Redesign (concepts borrowed from Jacek Utko and modified)

1. Web Site Strategy: What is the goal? Where and how can you reach new visitors to your website? Pick one measure of success (sales, conversions registrations), pick your most important measure and ask: “How can we increase that one measure of success?”

2. Content: What content do you have that will attract new visitors and advertisers. What content should you change or add to reach and serve them better?

3. Design: Does the interface and visual design bring together the new content and the new strategy? Is the user experience optimized, flawless, and satisfying? What needs to change?

4. Testing: How well can the visitors/users use the new design? How do they feel about it? What is it that you need to change based on feedback from your visitors?

5. Organizational change: What needs to change within the organization in order to change the design of the website and plan and produce a superior site over time?

6. Community and outreach: How can you reach out to the community of people in your industry, including customers, potential customers, vendors, and competitors? How can you stay in tune and in sync with what is going on around you? How can you integrate social media into your design?

7. Execution: Who needs to be trained on what in order to implement the new design? What needs to happen? How will you measure the improvements, and continue to measure them over time?

For more information on Jacek Utko check out: www.utko.com.

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