The Value of a Redesign
As you know, I’ve mentioned in the last week or so that an improved, redesigned layout will soon be visible here on adii.co.za, since I’m not happy with the state of the current design. Considering the amount of client work and premium theme work that I’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks, the time spent on my redesign isn’t billable to anyone, nor does it directly contribute to my monthly salary. But, I’m actually of the opinion that a redesigned blog adds immense value that can be quantified…
So what I’ve done is to identify a few quantifiable factors that you should consider when calculating the value to be gained from redesigning your blog / website and determine whether it is a viable option at this stage:
- Marketing Buzz. Redesigns always create some hype and discussion (especially on blogs)! Consider that when I announced the launch of this current design, that post got 60 comments; which is well above the average amount of comments on a post here. I also don’t think the nature of the discussion / opinions on a redesign (albeit positive or negative) is that important, because your aim is simply to create some buzz (some people will always like a new design, whilst others will take a while before they do…).
- Free Advertising. CSS Design Galleries are very popular (judging by the amount of them that is available) and I haven’t met a designer that doesn’t use these resources as a source of inspiration for their work. As soon as you redesign, you have the opportunity of submitting your site to hundreds of design galleries and get tons of clickthrough’s from those sites. And those CTR’s can obviously be quantified in terms of what your other online ads are costing you per click-through.
- Improved User Experience. Nothing beats a redesign that offers a better user interface, as that will improve user loyalty, as well as the usage of your website. Both of these will have a knock-on effect to the revenue models that you have implemented on your site; albeit ads that you sell (traffic will grow higher) or any products / services that you offer (the new site should generate more leads).
Looking at that list, you should get a good idea of what a possible redesign on your site will be worth. I’m sure that there’s a few more factors that you can consider, but these are the one’s that’s the easiest to quantify to a numeric amount.
Based on these factors (along with the fact that I just don’t “fee” my current design at the moment), it’s definitely a great idea for me to redesign. What do you think of this?
(Image by Peter Lambert)
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