You likely found this article because you've recognized that your current website doesn't cut it anymore. Reasons for redesigning your website are unique to each situation. The most common reasons are to boost engagement, improve lead generation, increase conversions, improve your user experience, expand functionality, rebrand or simply refresh a dated site look and feel.

Whatever your why, stakeholder expectations must be clear. Website redesigns require significant resources, time, energy, and investment. Success will depend upon your organization’s ability to define an actionable strategy with specific objectives.
Read on as we guide you through the essential steps of preparing for a website redesign and outline a project checklist to keep your organization on track.

Who are we helping and how?
Before diving into a website overhaul, first ask who we are serving and, how can better meet their needs.
Define your user groups. Who is using your site? What information are they seeking? Each user groups will take a unique user journey as they navigate through your site. Effective user groups are well-defined with clear parameters such as:

• Demographics: age, gender, race/ethnicity, income, education, marital status, etc.
  
• Psychographics: Lifestyle, interests, personality, values, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, etc.
  
• Behavioral: Attitude, avidity, expertise, intensity, loyalty, etc.

Take a critical look at your site. Then identify specific pain points for each group. What’s working for them? What’s working against them? This may include:

• User-experience issues such as confusing or cluttered navigation, missing information, off-brand content or design inconsistencies
• Technical issues like slow loading times, broken links or redirects, unresponsiveness, etc.
• Content issues such as missing or outdated information, off-brand content, irrelevant content, poor graphics, unlicensed content, etc.

Utilize your website analytics to better understand how users flow to and through your site. Leverage surveys, focus groups or simple interviews to learn what’s most important for your users.

Striking the perfect balance between aesthetics and usability is key to crafting great user experiences. So how will your website give every visitor a great experience? 4-minute read.

A well-designed site builds trust and guides visitors to take action, all the while creating an enjoyable user experience. So how will your website give every visitor a great experience? Read on to learn 10 keys to great site design:

1. Communicate clearly. Visitors must immediately and effortlessly recognize why your website exists, what you’re offering, and what actions they can take. Without visitors end up frustrated, leaving never to return. Avoid slang and overly technical copy. Test readability and legibility. Know that your message is on point and immediately understood by any user.
2. Visual language. You are telling your story through the users eyes. Site colors, icons, typography and imagery become a powerful visual language that is the backbone of your unique brand identity. When combined with well-written content, an effective visual language helps create a cohesive, memorable and enjoyable experience throughout your site.
3. Seamless navigation. Keeping navigation simple, intuitive, and consistent are key to a great navigation experience. Without it, users struggle to understand what to do and leave. Your navigation must feel predictable. Use a combination with structured menus, keyword searches, and internal linking.  But, keep it simple by incorporating clear labels, intuitive categories, and consistent placement of elements.
4. Familiar comfort. Elegant websites feel familiar, even at the first encounter because the design follows established conventions. Great designers build clarity and usability on conventions because they represent mental models that visitors have established by visiting countless other sites. For example, an innovative approach such as placing your navigation menu on the bottom of the page may look great, it is far from what users have come to know and expect, and likely would cause significant usability issues.
5. Responsiveness. Ensure that your site effortlessly adjusts to your visitor’s device or browser so that visitors always experience your site as you intended.
6. Structural integrity.  Well-organized sites are easy to digest. Hierarchy helps you structure content meaningfully so that users feel a logical flow helping visitors find what they want faster. Use color, contrast, size, white space, alignment and movement to your advantage.
7. Unwavering consistency. A cohesive look, feel and functionality ensures rewarding user experiences. Think about how color, typography, imagery, icons, buttons and copy style adds to or takes away from site functionality. Craft familiar experiences through consistent design.
8. Performance perks. Slow is ugly. Your site should load quickly, work properly, and give users feedback when there’s an issue or delay. Optimize site performance by eliminating any design elements that make your site the least bit sluggish. After all, it an elegant site doesn't work, how would you know it's elegant.
9. Friction-less interactions. Users should find converting intuitively easy. Whether you're asking visitors to sign up, subscribe, or buy, reduce the process to only the essential elements. Incorporate conversion processes that are free of distraction, confusion, and frustration are vital. Test for and eliminate unnecessary steps.
10. Stewardship. Visitors trust great websites through clear, consistent and accurate information free of errors, confusing copy and dead links. Good sites also communicate with transparency clearly citing fees and pricing, reasons for collecting personal data, and genuine customer reviews to inspire feelings of trust and confidence.

Let's raise a toast to the innovator's driving web design as we check out check out 4 examples of fresh ideas that we expect you'll see a lot more of soon.

Fresh, Fun & Optimistic Designs
With simple navigational flow this trend brings a little happiness with strong use of fun colors, faces, shapes. It's most effective with portfolio sites or e-commerce sites targeting youthful, energetic users.

Bold & Experimental Typography
San Serif rules no more with this trend taking foot. But, how long will it last? Big bold fonts seem to be popping up everywhere - even stodgy business sites - and they look amazing. Remember to keep your team tightly focused on impact across all platforms when employing bold typography. Will the design and US flow seamlessly?

Websites That 'Just Get Them'
Personalization is one of the strongest design tools. Designers are challenged with creating engaging user experiences without being creepy. It's a tough balance but when you pull it off, users simply ooze brand positivity.

Three-Dimensional Design Elements
Full, three-dimensional site designs are fading quickly because, while they score high on the first impression 'cool' factor, they simply lack everyday usability. We love how 3D design is evolving as more flat overall aesthetics are populated with 3D elements that shine creating a 'wow' factor with simple navigation for fantastic user experiences.