This is not a philosophical perspective on current web design practices, nor a futuristic view of where we may find ourselves in the years to come. Rather, this is a present-day reality check on what we encounter with clients as they seek to take their existing website and create a fresh, compelling web presence.

Unfortunately, there are far too many sites today that are employing old technology with an antiquated look and feel and bizarre navigation protocols. (An added complication is how users can degrade their site by having untrained personnel making updates through the Content Management System, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Part of our standard practices in deploying any website is to engage in an activity call Process Mapping. This is an exercise where we talk about how the client’s target audience will interact with their site, and how the user will navigate to find the information they need. A key component of this is to determine what actions we want the visitor to take, so they are more than observers of the site.

When we work with a client that has an existing site in need of a major overhaul, we also map out the flow of the current site. This step ensures that we capture all the current elements so that we can map those components over to the new structure. In addition, this process identifies gaps where new text and images are needed. While this can be a lengthy exercise, we have found that it eliminates misunderstandings and rework as we progress through the project.

Creating a new look for a website can be exciting, and there can be a temptation to dive right in and gloss over existing structures. We’ve learned that if you ignore the “As Is” the “To Be” becomes much more difficult to discern…

 

Image Credit Flickr