The importance of web redesign
Heraclitus was right when affirming that the only constant is change. This reality applies to everything in the universe, and the internet is not the exception. Technologies continually change and new standards are developed. Underestimating this reality diminishes the opportunities to succeed in the very competitive world wide web environment that we live in.
Web redesign should not be seen as a problem, but as an opportunity. Who does not like a fresh start? This is a step that represents growth and improvement, and it reveals the level of maturity of websites. Nobody likes old-fashioned pages. Redesigning is not only important, but necessary.
Every case is different and everyone has different needs. Sometimes redesigning just means to change some parts and make a few improvements, but in other cases an extreme makeover is required. A particular study should be made for every website.
The idea of redesigning could be daunting and it discourages website owners so much that they prefer to maintain the current version of their sites for an undetermined period of time, or forever if it was possible.
Web redesign is easy to say, but several times, extremely hard to do, especially for these reasons:
- It is expensive (professional designers and web developers will not do this work for free)
- It takes time (this is remarkably evident when the redesigning is for complex web applications and not just for a few web pages)
- Human nature is reluctant to change
Nevertheless, web redesign is a necessity after certain period of time. Sometimes redesigning is not required, but just a good maintenance is enough. In other situations, it is better to face the reality that the process of redesigning should start as soon as possible, even though it could be expensive and take a significant amount of time. It will eventually bring a lot of benefits that will make the effort worthy.
