|
| Does your Web site need major updates? ................................................................................................................................................................ |
|
Our company has had its Web site up for several years now without making any major changes. How do I know when I need to make major design updates to the site? Web sites and their design lifespan are much like fashion or advertising designs, they're constantly changing. Chances are if your site hasn't changed much in a couple of years it's time for an overhaul. Design trends, competitive environment, technology and other factors unfortunately cause Web sites to fall victims to design obsolescence on a relatively regular basis. I'd say if you're not making updates to the design every 12 - 18 months you are in danger of suffering from a site that has a dated look. There are a couple of quick ways to determine if your site is in need of a makeover. One is to look at your competitors. Have they updated or changed their sites recently to have more of a contemporary look? Another is to look at other sites your audience might visit. Not necessarily competitors, but ones for other products they would be likely to buy. As an example, if your company makes residential lighting fixtures you might want to look at what's happening on the plumbing or carpeting industries Web sites. Another thing to look into is the technology behind your site. The pace of technology change since the introduction of the Internet has been phenomenal and the software packages and design tools for developing Web sites have gone through a series of fundamental changes in the past few years. There are a number of standards for Web browsing that have been recently introduced and if your site's underlying technology has not been updated in the past few years you run the risk of some clients not being able to view it properly. We're currently working on updating a couple of client sites that were originally done a number of years ago. They were functional, but had become technically obsolete and had out of date designs. I personally think that one of the greatest crimes committed against the business world was Microsoft's promotion of FrontPage as a do-it-yourself Web design tool. At the time it was introduced it was a good way to create a quick and relatively cheap Web presence for a company, but it fooled a lot of people into thinking they could also be "Web designers." Now with the Internet becoming the most important marketing tool many companies have, their four-year-old FrontPage sites look primitive, are difficult to give a contemporary look to and provide the user with very limited functionality. Knowing what we know today and with the tools available we are updating the client sites to have both a more contemporary look and leveraging technology that will allow them to easily update the design in the future. So if your site hasn't been updated in a few years it's probably time for a makeover. Here are the things you can do to help you determine whether you need it and how far to go:
Good Luck! 
|
 If you have any comments about this column, or have a question you'd like answered, you can write to Andrew Hayden. |