How often should I redesign my website? | Revamp & Modernise For 2014

Short Answer: A redesign is advisable every 3 Years.

“What!? But there’s nothing wrong with my website!”

Right. So, what if we told you that you could do better? Have you ever heard of Responsive Design? Technology moves very quickly and by using the latest techniques, your website will be even more effective. What’s more, get it right and the redesign will easily pay for its self.

It’s natural to get attached to your current site and miss the potential you could achieve with a brand new web design for 2014. However, when you consider things from the perspective of your visitors, all becomes clear.

Does your website have Flash animations? Urgent: Redesign!

In 2008, it came as a shock to many businesses that their website wasn’t going to be viewable on what was quickly becoming the trendiest gadget on the block; the iPhone 3G. The Adobe Flash Player plugin, once the technology used to make your website design as beautiful as possible, was suddenly being shunned by the new kids on the block.

“Whatever!”, some web designers thought. Apple will cave in and do a deal with Adobe. After all, so many websites rely on Adobe Flash and by not supporting them, it is the Apple iPhone’s loss. Boy were they wrong, and there’s a good chance that your company’s website has been an unfortunate victim of this way of thinking. Does your website work smoothly on the iPhone or iPad? If not, this may be the reason why and you are probably losing customers.

As of today, neither the Apple iPad nor the iPhone support Adobe Flash, neither do the latest Android phones as support has been officially phased out.

Does your website have a separate Desktop and Mobile version? Or, does your website not support Mobile at all? Get a Redesign – now!

In 2011, after Adobe caved in and announced the discontinuation of Flash Player for all mobile devices, web design entered a new paradigm. Web developers came up with a solution to cater for 3 distinctive platforms:

• Computers – Apple Macs, Windows PCs (desktops, laptops)
• Tablets – Apple iPad, Android, RIM BlackBerry Playbook
• Phones – Apple iPhone, Android, RIM BlackBerry, Windows Phone

The solution was to create an Adaptive Design, redirecting users to a specific edition of the website, built for the type of device they were using. The Computer version may have even kept the old Adobe Flash design, the Tablet version may have been a cut down simplified version of the Computer version without the requirement of Flash player and the Phone version may have been similar, except with a much narrower page width.

In retrospect, there were plenty of problems with this approach. The same content had to be duplicated across all 3 versions, spending extra time, money and effort; the customers were not having a consistent experience depending on how they were accessing your website, meaning they could not access the same feature across the multiple platforms and had to re-learn how to use your site on each; and as more phones and tablets entering the market had a variety of screen sizes, you could no longer make assumptions about fixed screen sizes. Are your customers experiencing this? You must be losing some of them to your competition.

Does your website have a Responsive Design, supporting various devices at once, re-arranging the layout according to the screen size? Congratulations!

It is the year 2014. Humans have not (yet) colonised Mars, however, we have had some breakthroughs, including finding a better approach to ensure one version of a website can function across platforms, including computers, phones and tablets. Now, devices like the iPad or iPhone are the most popular ways to surf the web, so keeping these in mind whilst developing a new web design is obvious. Via the use of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, web designers have developed a new method of re-arranging content of a page without the need to duplicate content, known as Responsive Design. Not only is Responsive Design more efficient, but it gives your customers a consistent experience, whether they are using an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet, a Mac or a Windows PC.

However, beware! Who knows what changes await for web design in 2017. Whatever they may be, Active Webdezign, London, will be here and ready to adapt to ensure our clients’ websites are optimised, modern and effective.

Are you still stuck in 2011? Are you in London? We’ll throw you a rope

Active Webdezign are a London web design company and we can redevelop your website and optimise it for use across multiple platforms. We have been established since 1998 so have seen web development go through many transformations. We have had many satisfied clients over the years and we would love you to join the list.

To find out what we can do for you, give our London office a call on 020 8446 1515 or fill in the form on our contact page to receive a quotation.