“Good grief…please don’t say there’s another reason to redesign my website.” said many a business owner.
I make no promises, but first let’s make sure everyone is up-to-date on the last few reasons for website redesigns:
Responsive: “Responsive web design is an approach to web design aimed at allowing desktop webpages to be viewed in response to the size of the screen or web browser one is viewing with.” (from Wikipedia) We shifted from detecting browsers and devices and presenting one of several custom versions based on those, to allowing a single version to respond to whatever device the user has.
Mobile-First: “The mobile-first approach is exactly as it sounds: designing for the smallest screen and working your way up.” (from UXPin) This approach gained popularity with the significant rise of mobile device usage and with Google’s penalizing of websites that are not mobile-friendly.
Not convinced that mobile use is really that high? Well, if you don’t have your own website statistics available (always the best source) then take a look at ours from April of 2017…
That shows that at least 52% of our website visitors are using a mobile device (iOS + Android).
OK – so what now?
Journey-Driven: “We’ve come to the conclusion that mobile first is not specific enough to user needs. Truly user-centered design needs to start with the journeys our users are taking and the flows they follow to complete their objectives.” (from SmashingMagazine)
In a nutshell: It comes down to understanding your target customer, as it always has. Forget the buzzwords and forget everything that everyone is shouting that you need to do now (except for Google – always listen to Google). Get a picture of what devices your customers are likely to use, and then taking your budget into account, make sure you are optimizing based on the devices used by the most users.
Just don’t make the mistake of thinking your users are the same as someone else’s. For example the users coming to our site are likely quite different than the ones coming to your web site. So don’t make assumptions – mobile-first could be a poor choice for your customers. It’s very easy to get a picture of your current website visitors and use that information to make some informed decisions before taking off on a full redesign.
Your current web design may be working for your target audience after your analysis. But if it’s not, or if you want help doing the analysis, then Contact Us.