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Advice on website redesign
Taken from interview with John Stiles of Hutchhouse
Website: www.hutchhouse.com
Phone: +44 (0)1235 771 917
Hutchhouse are multimedia and web-design specialists passionate about design, accessibility and usability. Based in Wantage, Oxfordshire, Hutchhouse has worked for such prestigious companies as Yell.com, Expedia, The AA and BT, and has partnered with Momentum for several major projects.
In a recent interview with Managing Director John Stiles and Creative Director Ben Hutchins, we found out more about Hutchhouse's thoughts on the best way to approach a website redesign.
Jonathan Fink (Momentum): What advice would you give to businesses considering a redesign of their website?
John Stiles (Hutchhouse): Take slow considered steps from the ground up! In the ideal world, the launch of the new site should be scheduled for six months after the decision to redesign the site. One of the worst ways to kick off the process is to need the site redesigned and live for a specific event in two weeks time. Six months is ideal as the site will be live after two months, and then there's time to get the site established, bedded in.
Taking advice from the designer on board is really important.
Too often clients have an idea they're fixed on, debunking a decade of advice and may force the designer to go with it.Our job is to make sure that the client is well informed about industry best practice and usability, while still ensuring that they get a design they can be passionate about, and which work well for their business.
Our advice is to always consider the end users, their requirements and issues with their existing site. It can often happen that a client's internal perceptions of what a site should look like does actually reflect their customers' needs. Our job is to ensure that the site works for the business as an effective sales and marketing tool.
Jonathan Fink (Momentum): What is most important, design or content when developing a website?
John Stiles (Hutchhouse): By thinking through the content first, it will last for years and years. Organising the structure around the user enables the site owner to extend the lifetime of the site and enhance its performance. Design should complement content, and of course can always be updated or refreshed. The content will outlive the design, as that may date over time, but the content will still be working for them.
It's also best to take advice from experienced professionals. That can be a challenge for the client, as everyone has immediate responses to visual design, but a good website design is considered, and has a lot of strategy and experience behind it.
Jonathan Fink (Momentum): What are the most common obstacles you come across when working on a new project? e.g. content delays, customers not knowing what they want?
John Stiles (Hutchhouse): In a perfect world design should revolve around content. Designers should be involved with the overall creative process (tone of voice, slogans, calls-to-action). This site (www.momentumws.co.uk) is a good example of what can happen when designers and copywriters have a great working relationship, as it overcomes the perrenial issue of 'design versus content'. Unfortunately the world of web design is not perfect and in most cases companies will not have final drafts of content when the design process begins, but we ensure that this does not cause any delays.
Jonathan Fink (Momentum): Is design sign-off by committee a problem?
John Stiles (Hutchhouse): With the Enterprise level clients, decisions can be made quickly with a dedicated committee. So it's not a problem with a committee per se. Where there can be delays is in situations where you have two passionate and conflicting ideas from two of the key decision makers. This is when designers really come into their own because by understanding both requirements they can come up with a solution to the problem.
Fundamentally, the client has to make the decision for their business not themselves, and that's sometimes challenging for them to do. We do have processes designed to eradicate that: Each project has distinct stages with sign-off at each one.
Jonathan Fink (Momentum): What is the question that customers ask you most?
John Stiles (Hutchhouse): Have you done anything like this before? We have tackled many projects in a range of industries over the years so there is a good probability we will have experience in their sector. The bounds of web design are infinite, but the best practices and standards are finite. Whatever a company's requirements, brand and values, the solution we provide will be based on good design, well thought out functionality and above all focused on the user.
The general level of awareness of the importance of good web design is greater amongst clients now. People do appreciate the value of good web design and how much work it involves, and how important it is to get it right.