Planning a Successful Web Relaunch

Last Updated on Mai 22, 2023

Relaunching Your Website? Just Do It!

From our workshop at the German Bundesverband Hochschulkommunikation Jahrestagungen together with Bright Solutions in 2015. 

You can find more articles on Website Design and Website Tech right here on my blog.

1. Situation
Purpose of Relaunch
Benchmarks
Requirements

2. Processes
Preparation/Stake Holders
Analysis & Research
Branding & Strategy
Realisation

3. Results
4. Learnings
5. Why Open Source?

———-

1. Purpose of the Relaunch

Content User Focused
Create logical user stories.

Simplified Structure
Task driven, focus on user paths, not structured along internal structure

User Friendly
Mobile first layout, clean and simple Design

What is Core?
Review core content, core user stories

2. Benchmarks

  • Mobile first
  • Lite, flat, clean
  • Mobile site and content management

3. Requirements

Editors
How many people manage content?

Product Owners
Who are the content owners?

End Users
New standards of web content, new user expectations and patterns

IT/Partners
Current and future CMS – where will we need to be in 5 years?
Internal and external competencies

4. Processes

How much time do we take for each aspect of this project? Surprisingly experience shows us that most of the time spent is in scoping out the project. Design thinking, feedback loops, planning as much as you can before the build.

  • Review of Branding and Communication Strategy 50%
  • Analyis and Research of past performance, content review 10%
  • Preparation and communication with Stake Holders 20%
  • Programming 30%

5. Analysis and Research

Numbers don’t lie! How much of your content is actually being viewed? How many user paths and steps are really necessary. Here are some examples from an actual project. Not sure where to begin vetting „good“ and „bad“ content and structure? Your analytic numbers are the best place to begin.

Monthly visits: 55,000 clicks
Pages in total on your website: 2,500
Average length of time a visitor spends on your site: 1.5 minuten

6. Learnings

  • Never start the project just before Christmas …
  • Editors and other stake holders must learn that less is more.  Fewer labels, less unread content …
  • Better user experience across all devices

7. Why Open Source?

  • Costs, Competence, Creativity
  • Where (and if) should you use which CMS

8. Overview

  • Since 2011 mobile devices have outsold desktop devices. There is no „mobile internet“.
  • 378 mobile phones are sold each day. 371 babies are born each day.
  • 4 W’s (and 1 H): Who, What, Why, Where (How).
  • You have 90 seconds to impress your visitor.
  • Just Do It