Building Web Sites All-in-One For Dummies® (111 page)

Here's the logical workflow for a site redesign that includes the phases described in the following sections:

1.
Consultation

2.
Review

3.
Analysis

4.
Planning

5.
Implementation

6.
Testing

Consultation

Meet with your client to get the scope and breadth of the client's expansion. Get as much information as you can from the client. This meeting is very similar to your initial consultation with the client except that you know her better now and can talk frankly with the client based on your previous experience.

•
Find out everything about the client's current needs.
What are her goals for the revised site? Also, ask her to think about future expansion.

•
Discuss the previous site.
Your client is bound to have feedback from site visitors. Ask her which pages and sections work and which ones don't. The site stats can also give you an idea of which pages are popular and which ones are not.

•
Address the client's intended audience.
Is the intended audience the same as when you did the original site, or is the audience different or expanded based on the new information that will be incorporated in the redesign?

•
Address your client's current competitors.
Is she competing against different businesses now, or does the list of the client's competitors expand along with the Web site expansion?

•
Determine your client's timetable for going live with the redesign.
You need to incorporate her timetable with the other phases of the project and your current workload. If the timetable isn't reasonable, become the voice of reason and tell the client what the timetable will be based on the scope and breadth of the redesign.

Review

Review the client's existing site in conjunction with the desired expansion. During this review, you're looking for answers to these questions:

•
What does the client's current site say to the intended audience?

When reviewing the information, make note of which information is concurrent with your client's new goals, and which is not.

•
Will the intended audience change based on the new information you'll incorporate with the client's current site?

If the audience will change, consider what content from the old site is appropriate for the new site and also whether you need to change material based on the demographics of the new audience.

•
Can you incorporate the current graphics into the redesign?

You might need to change the navigation menu or site banner based on your client's new goals.

•
Has the client changed her logo?

If so, incorporate the new logo and colors with your redesign.

•
Can you improve navigation and the organization of information?

If the client's audience complained about any items on the old site, now is the perfect time to change them.

•
Which pages are the most popular and which pages have the fewest hits?

You can get this information from the site stats. If the pages that have the fewest hits contain important information, you have to tweak these pages during the redesign.

•
Which pages have been bookmarked by site visitors?

You have to incorporate a version of bookmarked pages in the new design, and these pages must have the same URL. Your Web site statistics may include this statistic. Your client can also use third-party companies to track statistics, or your client can sign up for Google Analytics. Google Analytics doesn't show bookmarked pages, but it will give you extensive information about which pages are visited most frequently, how long visitors stay on the site, and so on. As of this writing, the service is free. For more information, visit
www.google.com/analytics/
.

You want to include some familiar items in order to provide some continuity to people who visited the original version of the site. Two of the most common items in a design are the banner and the footer. If possible, include both in the redesign so your client's Web site visitors won't think they landed on the wrong Web site.

Analysis

Analyze the information you gleaned while reviewing the site and then incorporate that with the content that the client wants incorporated with the redesign. Determine whether this information can be incorporated with that presented on the client's current Web site or whether you need to create new pages for the material.

Analyze the client's intended audience. Has it changed since your first design for the client? Has the technology used by your client's intended audience changed since your first design? Has Web technology changed since your first design? The answers to these questions shape your redesign. You also need to know what bandwidth your client's audience is using to access the Internet, their average computer screen desktop size, and so on.

A redesign is more than simply rehashing material from the old site. Although you do want to keep some continuity, analyze the material that the client is presenting to you for the redesign. Unless you're forgetful or have more business than you know what to do with, you're bound to remember the content of the old site. If not, analyze the content of the current site thoroughly before examining the new content proposed by the client. After reviewing the new content, come up with a plan to marry the old with the new.

Planning

This stage of the redesign is similar to creating a mockup for client review. Incorporate all the information you gathered to create a user-friendly navigation system that combines the old and new. After you jump this hurdle, consider how you'll organize the information on each page. The information you got while consulting with the client, reviewing the client's existing pages, and analyzing the other important factors in the redesign shows you which information is the most relevant in the redesign. This information must be easily accessible by your client's intended audience.

You have to address other issues in your redesign, such as the following:

•
Whether the current site's server has enough features to implement your redesign:
For example, if your redesign incorporates a database, does the server have provisions for creating a database? Alternatively, can you upgrade the features on the server side to incorporate the new features in your redesign?

•
What software is needed:
For example, if the client asks you to include a site-wide search engine, you need to find the applicable software — and include the cost plus markup of the software in your revision.

•
How much of the old can be wed with the new:
Consistency is important to Web site visitors. Therefore, you should keep some of the old images — and, if at all possible, the site banner. When you plan the redesign, keep the client's intended audience in the forefront of your mind. Your redesign incorporates the client's goals with the intended audience's expectations. In the viewer's eyes, the redesigned site should have value-added services.

First off, archive the original Web site. You might be able to incorporate some of the material in the original design in future revisions of the redesigned site. If the site's Web server allows you to store data, you can archive the old site in a folder on that server. If not, download the old site and save it to DVD or to an external hard drive.

•
What technology your client's intended audience is using:
Do they have the necessary browser and plug-ins to access the technology you plan on using in the redesign? If not, use a different technology or add links to sites where site visitors can download the plug-ins needed to view the redesigned site. In the long run, your best bet is to plan the redesign around the lowest common denominator; in other words, go with the oldest technology used by your client's intended audience.

Alternatively, you can create two versions of the site: one for the techies who have the latest software plus fast Internet access, and another version for the lowest common denominator. Use a gateway page with links to direct visitors to the site that matches their technology. A
gateway page
describes the resources needed to view each iteration of the site. For example, you can create a Flash site for visitors who have the Flash Player installed on their computer and an HTML site for those who don't. The gateway page has a link to each section.

•
Whether you incorporated future expansion in the redesign:
Make sure your navigation menus are laid out so that you can easily incorporate additions to the Web site. Use templates to simplify the construction of each page. Templates will also be indispensable when incorporating future expansion into the redesigned site.

Include search engine optimization (SEO) in your redesign. If you don't, the client's expanded site will be virtually invisible in search engine results pages. See Book VIII, Chapter 1 for more about SEO.

Implementation

At this stage of the process, you start with a clean slate in your HTML editor and incorporate your planning to create the actual pages. This is no different than creating a new Web site. You design a
home page
(a brief overview of your client's business, service, or organization) that's compelling enough to draw visitors to the site. Then you must lay out the ensuing pages in a logical manner with the most important information at the top of the page. The main pages in any section of the site should be short, simple, and to the point. Pages that are deeper in a section can have more text.

If you're incorporating Assets (such as images or multimedia files) from the old site, download these to a folder on your computer so you can quickly access them when needed.