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Redesign vs realign

Posted at Aug 13, 2008 2:18:50 PM by Ronald Busky | Share

I heard a quote floating around the internet a ways back. At the time I didnt fully understand his point.

"Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign"

What hes trying to say here is that anybody can redesign a website. Its easy to add a mirror reflection and some drop shadows to make a site look "slick". Sure it may look cool, but does it work better? does it convert browsers into buyers? Did the redesigned site post better results than the original?

On the otherhand a realignment will take the existing content and reposition it to gain results. A good approach is to step back and ask why the site was built in the first place. Is it to sell watches? If so, the most available path should guide me to where I can buy a watch. Paths that guide me away from buying the watch should be removed. In other words a well designed site will guide me towards buying a watch and nowhere else.

This concept seems obvious but for whatever reason people have a tendancy to add things. Often these additions become distractions which compromise the sites effectiveness. Next time you set out to redesign a site think about your goal, Are you trying to make it look better or work better? A good looking site is cool, but a site that works better is way cooler.

Tags: Web Design

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