Field guide
Website Redesign
Diagnose what you have, restructure it, and prove the new design works
- When to use it
- Reach for this when a site has grown messy or stopped converting, and you want to rebuild its structure around how people look for things.
- Time
- 3–6 weeks
- You walk away with
- A validated structure and design direction
How it runs
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Week 1
Understand the current site
Write the brief, run a content audit, and score the current site against ten usability principles.
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Week 2
Learn how people group things
Run a card sort with 5 to 8 users to see how they expect the content organized.
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Week 3
Rebuild the structure
Build the new sitemap from the audit and card sort, then name the menus in people’s own words.
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Weeks 4–6
Design and validate
Design the new pages, then usability-test and iterate before launch.
Worksheets
Fill them in here and they save in your browser, or print the PDF. Nothing you type leaves your device.
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Project Discovery Brief
Agree the goals, the scope, and what success looks like
About 1 hr 15 min PDF of Project Discovery Brief
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Content Audit
Catalog every page and decide what to keep, update, merge, or remove
About 1 hr 15 min Fill it in: Content Audit PDF of Content Audit
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Heuristic Evaluation Scorecard
Score the current site against ten usability principles
About 1 hr 15 min Fill it in: Heuristic Evaluation Scorecard PDF of Heuristic Evaluation Scorecard
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Card-Sort Guide
Learn how real users expect the content grouped
About 30 min PDF of Card-Sort Guide
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IA & Sitemap Worksheet
Build the new structure from the audit and the card sort
About 2 hr 30 min PDF of IA & Sitemap Worksheet
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Navigation & Labeling Worksheet
Name the menus in your users’ own words
About 1 hr 15 min PDF of Navigation & Labeling Worksheet
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Usability Test Guide
Put the redesign in front of users and score it
About 45 min PDF of Usability Test Guide
Next field guide: New Product MVP