A website redesign is a significant investment — of budget, time, and internal effort. Like any investment, it should deliver measurable returns. In this article, we cover a best practice approach to a redesign that ensures success by addressing the real underlying issues affecting engagement, conversion, and revenue. Drawing on the most widely regarded frameworks and research in design strategy, we’ll explore:
- Redesign – Common Motivations and Pitfalls – Why popular reasons often fall short and what can go wrong
- Best Practice: Start With the Problem – The right questions to ask before any redesign
- The Strategic Redesign Process – A proven approach based on the Double Diamond model
- Best Practice: Start With the Problem – The right questions to ask before any redesign
- The Strategic Redesign Process – A proven approach based on the Double Diamond model
Redesign – Common Motivations and Pitfalls
Redesigning a website is not just a creative decision — it's a strategic one. A redesign should be anchored in solving a real business problem, not just reacting to cosmetic concerns. Too often, redesign efforts focus on visual trends in the hope they’ll boost engagement or conversions — without thoroughly understanding the real barriers users face or the psychology driving their behaviour.
Organisations often approach a website redesign with high hopes — aiming for a cleaner look, a fresher feel, or a modern experience that reflects their identity. They invest time and budget in visuals, restructure pages, and update content. But a year later, many are left wondering: has it really made a difference?
Has traffic improved? Are users staying longer? Have donations, memberships, or event registrations increased?
Too often, the answer is no — not because the design itself was flawed, but because it didn’t go far enough. It wasn’t grounded in a clear strategy or aligned to performance objectives. That’s the opportunity missed.
If you're unclear on the problem, the redesign risks becoming a blocker — not a solution. Worse, once you've launched and embedded a new system, it's costly and time-consuming to rework it if it wasn't designed around your users from the outset.
Common Triggers (and Why They Fall Short Without Strategy)
Below are some typical reasons cited for starting a redesign — and why they may not deliver the outcomes hoped for if approached in isolation:
| Popular Reason | Why It’s Not Enough |
|---|---|
| "It looks outdated" | Looks aren’t strategy. Design must clarify your value and serve your users. |
| "Competitors just updated theirs" | Copying peers may ignore what your specific audience needs. |
| "It’s been 5 years" | Age doesn’t equal underperformance. Data should drive change. |
| "We want to feel more modern" | Without defined goals, modern design alone won't drive engagement. |
These reasons are not wrong — but they need to be backed by deeper analysis. If the core challenge is low engagement or unclear messaging, then visuals alone won’t solve it.
Redesigning with purpose means asking: what business problem are we solving? What outcomes do we want to see? And how do we know the new design will improve them?
Only when these questions are answered can the redesign deliver meaningful results.
Best Practice: Start With the Problem
What is the actual business problem? If the aim is to improve engagement or drive conversions, then addressing aesthetic concerns in isolation risks overlooking more important factors — such as whether your message resonates, calls to action are visible and persuasive, and the user journey enables your key audiences to connect their needs with what you offer. Strong design can certainly elevate trust and clarity — but it needs to work in concert with structure, language and flow. Design and non-design elements should be considered together to maximise effectiveness and return on investment.
According to leading design thinking frameworks — such as the Double Diamond (Design Council UK) and Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) — effective design must be anchored in a clearly defined problem, validated by user insight and business goals.
When you plan from the outset to align your redesign with KPIs — and integrate it into your broader content and engagement strategy — you create a platform that does more than look good. It communicates clearly, converts confidently, and supports organisational growth.
"You don't hire a website because it looks good. You hire it to do a job — to help users get something done." — Adapted from JTBD thinking
The return on a redesign isn’t in the look and feel alone — it’s in how effectively it enables your audience to understand, engage, and act.
A more strategic redesign starts with questions like:
- What business challenge are we solving?
- Where are users dropping off, getting stuck, or confused?
- Can people tell what we do — and for whom — within 5 seconds of landing on our site?
- Whose journey matters most, and how can we prioritise it?
Examples:
- If your main audience is prospective donors or members, does your homepage guide them clearly?
- Is your value proposition front and centre?
- Are the most common actions (donate, join, contact) visible and frictionless?
- Target personas are not coming to your website empty handed — what needs do they bring, and how quickly do they recognise your offerings to meet them?
The Strategic Redesign Process
A high-performing redesign doesn’t just emerge from good taste — it comes from a structured process that integrates research, insight, and iteration. The Double Diamond framework, developed by the Design Council UK, offers a useful structure for balancing exploration with execution:
- Discover – Research users, map pain points, study analytics
- Define – Identify core issues and audience segments
- Develop – Explore content and design solutions, prototype
- Deliver – Implement, test, and refine based on real outcomes
When this process is aligned with Jobs to Be Done thinking — understanding what your users are trying to accomplish and how your site helps them get there — the result is a site that not only looks good, but works hard for both your audience and your organisation.
Final Thought
Design is not decoration. It’s a vehicle for clarity, connection, and conversion.
So before redesigning, make sure you’ve identified the real job to be done — and let that guide every decision.
Need help diagnosing whether your site needs a facelift or a full rethink? Get in touch for a strategic review aligned to business outcomes.
By Jnychka - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link