What Makes A Good Website Project - Creativity or Planning?

When undertaking a website redesign, it can be easy to get caught up in the overall look and feel or desired aesthetic of a site. However, in the field of website design, user experience and usability are the most important attributes to ensuring your customers and prospective customers are not only able to find what they are looking for with ease, but also have a delightful experience in the process. In fact, 38% of people will leave a website if they find the design is not attractive. Developing a comprehensive UI/UX strategy requires more than creativity.  A successful website redesign requires planning, discussion and an in-depth understanding of both your audience and business requirements so that as you move forward in the project, you can feel confident that you are building a solution that serves the needs of the business at large.

At Multimedia Solutions, we often cite that 50% of a project’s effort goes into the planning phase. The key behind developing a sound UI/UX strategy for every website redesign rests in the details. It’s not enough to just have a great looking website -- it has to function well. As Steve Jobs famously said, “design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Shockingly, research shows that 25% of website projects fail. Understanding the potential pitfalls before undertaking a website redesign can greatly help in making sure that you too do not go down the wrong path. Accurately capturing requirements and ensuring everyone has a common vision on how the site should function and what it needs to accomplish is paramount to safeguarding that the project goes smoothly. 

WHY WEBSITE PROJECTS FAIL

In our experience, and while these are certainly not the only reasons, there a three top reasons why website projects fail.

1. The first is the lack of a clear objective. You know you need to embark on a website redesign, but what are you looking to accomplish or measure at the end of the project in order to deem the website redesign a success or failure? Having clear objectives and success metrics upfront will limit any doubt from across the organization on “why we’re doing what we’re doing”.

2. Secondly, stakeholder involvement is key to the success of your website project. Getting leadership involved early will eliminate the risk that months of hard work will be scrapped because they weren’t involved in the overall strategic direction of the site from the beginning.

3. Additionally, and perhaps most important to ensuring a project is delivered on time and on budget, is having a clear timeline or plan. With a website redesign, there are many moving pieces and all team members must understand how any deviations from the plan can impact the overall completion date.

By outlining objectives and getting stakeholders involved in the process, this helps everyone adhere to the timeline or plan that’s been put forth. With a sound foundation to the strategic direction, creativity and good design will ultimately follow.