How to start planning your website redesign

How much time should a company spend planning a website redesign before sending out a request for a quote?

Occasionally we receive requests for quotes for website projects where the site is already very well designed. Some of these designs are well thought out and take good account of business objectives and needs. Part of website design but in practice the focus has been more on the details, which in the grand scheme of things have no bearing on the success or success of the site.

To get a website project off to the right start, it is a good idea to identify your own level of expertise and the opportunities and risks of your own design.

Strengths of your own design work

Advanced in-house design is justified when a company has a clear and realistic vision of its website objectives and experience and expertise in website projects and digital marketing. This means that they are reasonably well placed to take the right things into account for their own business and to demand the right things from their website partner.

The challenges of designing your own

The risks and weaknesses of your own design work are related to a lack of skills, which should be identified early. If the design is done poorly and only from one perspective, e.g. by redesigning the layout, all other success factors of the site may be forgotten. In practice, the time spent on design work is wasted and the start of the project is unnecessarily delayed.

Invalid call for tenders

If the design itself does not take all aspects into account and is used as the basis for a call for tenders, the bids may differ greatly. A competent agency will ask the client for the missing information and will include in the price the things that the client has not taken into account. A 'bulk' site operator, on the other hand, will usually only respond to what the customer asks for.

How should you start your website redesign?

There are so many things to consider in a website project that quite a few companies have comprehensive expertise in the design and implementation of the entire site. At the outset of a website project, it would be a good idea to involve a partner in the design or an external consultant to design the tender.

This can help to ensure that the requirements for the website project are sufficient and that a competent agency is chosen as a partner. This will reduce the number of missteps, ensure that the design proceeds in the right order, saving time and making the site more likely to be more productive from a business perspective. The cost of implementation is likely to be higher, but the corresponding time savings and more productive site will make the project significantly cheaper if done well.

When is the right time to ask for help?

If you have any doubts about your level of expertise, the time to do it is as soon as you have decided that your website needs to be redesigned. This will ensure that the design of your website gets off on the right foot straight away. The only design-related thing you can do before asking for help is to think about the business objectives of the site if these are not clear. In practical terms, it is worth thinking about how the site should help the business to be more successful and what that means in practical terms. "Who do you want to reach and how do you want to influence them?

For more information on the site redesign, see the very comprehensive our guide here.

If you would like more information or would like to discuss this with Digiteam's experts, please contact us.

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