My Website Redesign Process

I’m in the process of redesigning my website. It’s hard to find the time to get it done, but I thought maybe if I go public with it that would keep me accountable and on a better schedule.

Here are a few of the online resources I’ve found helpful so far:

• PSD Tuts – Cliff Notes on a Redesign
• Hubspot – Website Redesign Kit
• Smashing Magazine – Web Design Trends for 2009
• Just Creative Design – Top 7 Fonts Used by Professionals in Graphic Design
• Design View – Designing a Guided Tour
• Smashing Magazine – 9 Common Usability Mistakes in Web Design

These articles are all full of great advice and I just hope that I can keep these pointers in check and have an effective website at the end of it all.

If you have an article you think would be helpful I would love to read it, so just drop me a line in the comments area.

Here are a few of the steps I’ve taken so far…

1. Listed current pages and pages I would like to add, and ones I would like to remove.
2. Asked clients what they like or don’t like about my current site and what they would like to see in the future. I’m so glad I did this because almost everyone responded and I got some really great input and ideas.
3. Defined each page by what the visitor should find there and what action I want them to take.
4. Made a flow chart according to navigation and desired guided tour.
5. Currently doing keyword research and then will move on to updating the content as needed. This will end up being very time consuming if I let it, so I decided to do away with several pages that weren’t getting much traffic and really weren’t necessary to the process of trying to attract clients and get them to contact me if they feel we are a good match.

I’ll post updates on my progress as I go along and I hope that sharing this process will help someone else considering a website redesign.