Have you ever visited a redesigned website that looks nice, but is no more usable than before (or worse)? Did your organization implement a new content management system only to find your content never got any better? Were you disappointed when the new portal failed to revolutionize the way you work?
What are the first things many people think to do when their website has problems?
“Hire someone to redesign it! Get some new technology!”
Why? Because that’s what they always do. That’s what their competitors do. And quite frankly, they just don’t have the time or expertise to think about it. It’s a vicious cycle– a website gets redesigned, a tool gets implemented and people are happy with it for a little while. But old problems resurface, frustration mounts and it’s time to redesign again.
You blame the tool, blame the vendor, blame the people who work for you, but never blame the process.
Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
By this definition, the organizations we work with are ALL insane. So are we, and we admit it.
It’s so easy to fall into old patterns and behaviors. Trying to keep up with competitors, trends and the mounting pile of work in front of you leaves little time to think. You just do what you know. We have spent time on both sides of the table– the client side and the vendor side. In former roles, we redesigned hundreds of enterprise and small scale sites in response to a pre-determined scope of work spelled out in a complicated RFP. The projects usually addressed surface-level issues that resulted in nominal improvements in the look and usability of the site.
We have made our fair share of mistakes, but now we are learning from them. We had the tremendous benefit of a fresh start and new perspective that comes from creating a new company. We now find ourselves questioning everything we do and constantly asking “why?”
Here’s a sample from a Skype chat we had a shortly after starting decimal152 at the end of 2008:
Todd: [they] redesigned their website and it still sucks
Adam: that’s blunt
Adam: why does it still suck?
Todd: maybe the design or the cms was never the problem to begin with
Adam: or maybe it was, but it wasn’t done right
Todd: or maybe it was only part of the problem
Adam: or they got railroaded by a committee or a vendor
Todd: ahh, yes. like us.
Todd: in a past life
Adam: people define scope for a redesign RFP without doing the predesign work to determine scope in the first place
Todd: we need to start with good research that leads to good strategy before tackling solutions
Adam: and educate the entire organization along the way
Let’s stop the redesign insanity! Ask questions. Think before copying what another organization is doing. What works for them may not work for you. Besides, how do you know if it even works for THEM? (Chances are they don’t know if it’s working either). Redesigning a website to fix a problem you haven’t fully diagnosed is like putting a band-aid on a tumor.
It’s time to focus on pre-design– the research, strategy and planning that takes place BEFORE you decide to redesign your website.
We’re looking forward to an honest conversation… and lots of questions. We hope you’ll join us.
Side note: This is our very first blog post! We’re so glad you found it. If you care about your organization’s communications and the people responsible for getting them done, we hope you will subscribe to our blog. You can get updates on future posts by subscribing to our RSS feed, email updates, Facebook fan page, LinkedIn or Twitter. One last favor– help us get the word out and share this with a friend! Thanks– Todd.
Are U talking about UM’s new website????
Nice first post. I agree that it’s time to focus on the research, strategy and planning. We redesigned our site in June 2006 and have made incremental changes along the way but I still hear from different offices that we need a new design that pops more for their office site. I wonder how often that the internal community just gets tired of an old design even if it works…
Great topic and so very true!
HOW do you know if it’s working?
If I don’t copy from my neighbor, where do I do my research?
I’m getting 1.5million page views from 250,000 unique visitors per month. Is that working?
What metrics should I be looking at after the up-time and response time numbers that show I can serve those pages, reliably?
Well said! I find some orgs may rely on their website to do too much, and sometimes overload their pages with content. “Good technology” is never a substitute for a conservative plan with well-written content.
Thanks for your comments everyone!
@Jim– I wasn’t, but could have been
@Paul, so true. People closest to the design are most likely to tire of it. Funny we react to them because they probably aren’t even the people the site was intended for. I’d venture to say that 75% of redesigns and rebrandings are because somebody is tired of what they have (that number is a total guess, BTW).
@Eric- your questions and comments are exactly why we decided to create this blog. You hit on the “strategy” component of predesign. It’s not enough to just do the research to discover what your users and organization need from the website, that has to be translated into a cohesive, comprehensive and measurable plan. Analytics can be a tool to help with measurement, but numbers don’t mean a whole lot in the absence of strategy. Most people take their analytics and say “ok, I have this data, what does it mean?” Instead, they should be figuring out what it is they need to know to measure the success of their strategies, then looking for the appropriate measure. I’ll be blogging a lot more about that here, because I think it’s vital to an organization understanding if their site works (figuratively, not technically). BTW, I believe predesign is an ongoing process, not just before-redesign. As you constantly ask “why” or “what” in an effort to continuously improve the site, you’re doing predesign. Thinking before designing.
Lastly, Eric, you did help me think about this from another perspective. While I was thinking about the success of a site in terms of how well it meets user needs and business objectives, someone in IT is tasked with managing a site that is available, fast and efficient. Your meaasurements of success will be different than the communications, admissions or sales offices’. All are important and all need to be a part of the plan. Many orgs focus on one and not the other.
It is so interesting to hear the comments from people inside of an organization (educational institutions, in our case) who desire changes to the website so that their portion is better portrayed. (These may be the same people who resist updating their department pages??) Todd, you are correct in pushing for a strategic basis upon which to develop the site — a strategy that must be understood throughout the ENTIRE organization. That responsibility — to communicate the strategy — falls with the Web Development staff. (They must spread that Web 2.0 love.) Regarding measurement, it is only relevant when it ties to other marketing and communications efforts. Landing pages and microsites that foster conversations with visitors are the holy grail of measurement. Congrats on the blog, Todd. I look forward to future posts. -Josanne
Great post. Love the language of “pre-design”.
The ideas you are presenting require a savvy leader to sell these kind of ideas up the chain. Will be interested to see posts in the leadership category.