Complete redesign

[Jackimalyn]

Hey guys.

Im working on redesigning my company's website. Unfortunately, I've discovered that our site is not user friendly, misses target audiences and has way too much information on it.

Our customers use our site a lot... they are used to the interface and so is our staff. I want to start over, completely new design, new navigation, new content. How can I make this transition easy for our current users? The new interface will be easy to use, but have you guys ever experienced a negetive effect with existing users having trouble adapting? And how did you handle that?

thanks :)

[jibble]

ok. this is my bag right here! FLASH!

A few things...

As far as dealing with your clients and a new design. It can have negative effects, but if your client base is fairly loyal i wouldn't worry too much about it. Since it's flash, why not offer an option? show the new site, and have a "like the old? see it here" type of link or something.

As far as the design itself, which i know your redesigning so i'll offer a few tips. This one every picture loads, why? They are small enough to all load at the very beginning. They may load because they are big photos, but flash photos should NEVER be above 250-300k even at full screen. There are ways around this like bitmapdataclass, etc. It also looks like this is running at about 12fps. I rarely go below 40. You may also want to think about running it at full screen. Just things to think about when your making the next round. If you have any flash questions shoot me a pm and i'll help out where i can :)

[Jackimalyn]

thanks for the tips... but I'm not redesigning my portfolio, but rather my company's website. It wont be flash (well not the whole site just an animation or two)

I'm just concerned with disrupting my current loyal customers. Hopefully the neew site will be so user friendly, they wont have any problems!!

[Mynock]

Here are some options:
1. Tough luck old site. You change the whole thing to hopefully a better easier site. You put up with calls about where stuff is. After awhile it will die down hopefully. Just make sure you keep the old one. But if you make it easier to find something you might not get many.
2. Leave the old but create a new one that has a link to "classic." Hopefully people will migrate to the new being it is there first and easier to use. You can also make classic hard to find for those people who you tell how to get to it.
3. Borrow things from the old site. Like location of links or some navigate in hopes costumers wont be shell shocked when they first visit. Gradually over time you can get rid of all remnants of the old site if needed.

*Also be wary of any pages people might have bookmarked like www.site.com/orders.html make sure that the new site follows the same links and not www.site.com/ordermehere.html

Hopefully that helps you somewhat.

[Jackimalyn]

thanks Mynock. those are some good options. I really dont want to keep any of the old site. it really sucks. but, i guess some may be necessary.

and thanks for the tip about bookmarks, i wouldnt have even thought of that

[Mynock]

I hope that will help a little bit. It all depends on if people really use them or not, but if they don't it would be easy to err on the side of caution.

[DesignVHL]

If you were to cut down the content to what is important, and reorganize the site in a way that WOULD BECOME MORE USER FRIENDLY...I don't see the problem here..the whole point of a redesign IMHO is to give a visual overhaul, as well as make it more organized, user friendly, and more content specific to your target - at least that is what I'm getting from your OP. At first, your clients may be a LITTLE lost - but come on the internet has been here for how long now? It isn't TOO hard to browse a site and find what your looking for - so long as you get that content properly organized in a way that will make sense to you, your company, and your users.

Perhaps try writing up a creative brief, do some sitemaps/organizational charts to start and see if it makes sense. Try keeping it as simple as possible for your target aud. and employees to use. I think your worrying too much and will do a great job.

I agree with some other comments - borrowing and incorprating certain things that make sense to use or keep. Aside from the content, you can also save over pages...and use redirects on pages that no longer have content...redirect to a page with related content for example.

Perhaps if your really nervous about it all include some sort of a resource page that explains your redesign, and how they can find what they are looking for.

good luck! :)

[urstwile]

I really like Mynock's idea of offering "classic" as an option.

In addition, a couple of the email newsletters I receive regularly, for example, Creative Pro and Macworld, have informed and involved regular users that changes are a-happenin', and provided a link for people to provide input on the interface changes. This seems to me to make people feel part of the process, so the changes don't seem like just a random thing that they have to adjust to.

I'm not sure how feasible that is in your case.