Guide

Website Redesign

Diagnose what you have, restructure it, and prove the new design works

When to reach for this guide

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.

Understand the current site (week 1)

Write the brief, run a content audit, and score the current site against ten usability principles.
Learn how people group things (week 2)

Run a card sort with 5 to 8 users to see how they expect the content organized.
Rebuild the structure (week 3)

Build the new sitemap from the audit and card sort, then name the menus in people's own words.
Design and validate (weeks 4-6)

Design the new pages, then usability-test and iterate before launch.

Project Discovery Brief: Agree the goals, the scope, and what success looks like.
Content Audit: Catalog every page and decide what to keep, update, merge, or remove.
Heuristic Evaluation Scorecard: Score the current site against ten usability principles.
Card-Sort Guide: Learn how real users expect the content grouped.
IA & Sitemap Worksheet: Build the new structure from the audit and the card sort.
Navigation & Labeling Worksheet: Name the menus in your users' own words.
Usability Test Guide: Put the redesign in front of users and score it.

Find what trips people up on your site, and tackle the quick wins first

Go from a rough idea to a first version worth testing, without overbuilding

Learn what the people you serve need, in their words, before you build

Run a focused week to turn a hard problem into something you can test

Get everyone on the same page about what you're building and why