If it's been more than a year or two since your website was designed, it's time to start planning for a redesign.
Why? Well, aside from refreshing your image and keeping up with web trends, there are quite a few recent options and features that might be an advantage to you. Here are a few clues that it's time for a redesign:
1. You feel like your site is getting less and less functional. (The truth is, web technologies are becoming more efficient - your website is simply staying the way it always was.)
2. There is a lot of dead space on the sides of the screen when your website is displayed, i.e., the page content is much more narrow than the screen or doesn't use all the space. (These days, most desktops and laptops are formatted more like a widescreen - think about watching a widescreen movie on an older television - remember the black bars at the top and bottom?)
3. Your website doesn't display well on a mobile phone browser, or is hard to navigate. (Have you ever checked? Things that look great on a 20" screen may not translate to a 4" one.)
4. The media you have on your site doesn't play well or is hard to find. It really doesn't work well on a mobile phone. (You may be operating on an outdated player or old version of one. These days, there are many ways to upgrade that performance.)
5. The images on your site load slowly and are not the size and quality you'd like. (Again, it's about the "player" that displays the photos - that technology advances frequently. We can have you loading large, clear photography quickly and easily.)
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Ready to Explore a Redesign?
Here are 5 big ways your web presence can be updated:
1. Greater functionality and features with SiteWrench
SiteWrench is consistently being updated with new features, updated functions, and improved performance. These are just a few options that are standard for most of the sites that we work with.
(click to enlarge photos)
Social media links in a prominent position on every page will help you connect to your network on a daily basis. If your organization has an app, why not advertise it in the same section?
Link your Twitter feed with your home page so visitors can see what is being said and done, literally, up-to-the-minute! You can also include Twitter mentions to show what is being said about you.
An interactive calendar with integrated event registration will involve your web visitors even further. List View makes your events easy to read and sort.
2. Adaptability to Mobile Devices
Mobile sites are characterized by simple, prioritized, convenient navigation, formatted for a small screen and integrated with your smart phone's features
3. Changes in Layout and Design
There are two main recent changes in layout and design that you'll notice:
The most obvious is the migration to centered, widescreen-formatted layouts. Remember when you'd watch a widescreen format movie, and you had black lines at the top and bottom to make it fit on your square TV? That's the same problem you see here. In recent years, designers have been taking advantage of the increased space widescreen monitors offer, as well as centering the content so that it looks correct, no matter what computer is displaying it.
(right: Bethesda Baptist Church, 2007 - BEFORE)
The second big change, related to design, is the trend of very clean, uncluttered visuals, with fewer textures. You'll see more white space (which isn't always white - just empty), larger photography (see point #5), simpler color schemes, and uncomplicated fonts. Design is always changing, of course, but this design trend is likely to stick around awhile - simply because it looks great on mobile devices, and they're the fastest growing web visitors!
(right: Bethesda Baptist Church, 2011 - AFTER)
4. Media Archiving and Better (Easier!) Media Performance
Playing media from your desktop site, mobile site or app gets easier and easier with media archives - visitors will be able to search and play media directly from the site. The archiving allows you to upload an entire series of videos, and keep them available long-term! (Sitewrench users that have been on the system for a while should talk to their account rep about media migration, if they haven't already - it can really simplify things and speed up performance!)
All of this makes it easier for you to upload, as well as easier for users to view.
5. Treatment of Images
Image display and treatment have made obvious changes in the past few years - particularly now that Flash is disappearing from mobile devices. Previously, images were powered by Flash and had to continually reload to display. This meant that they needed to be small enough to load quickly. Now, with Banner Rotator and other options, you can display as many photos as you want, let them rotate as a gallery, and even use screen-size photography as a background!
Here are some recent photo-centric designs: