Product redesign (website, application) should be one of the important approaches for every business. Why is it important? Naturally, when a product is designed, we should not expect that the work is finished, but we should try to make it better. By redesigning the product, in addition to revising based on new principles and standards, the problems that users have with the product are also solved, so Redesign can greatly contribute to the user experience and brand popularity.
In this article from our series of user experience training articles, we discuss the category of website and application product redesign. What basics should be considered in this work or when your product needs to be redesigned are questions that you will get in the rest of this article and of course research and consult with experts.
Table of Contents
When should we think about product redesign?
There are many reasons to start a product redesign process. However, it is better to start by understanding the problems and the reasons you have for this. In the following, we have listed the things that show that it is time to redesign your brand product:
When the expiration date of the plan is over
New designs and modern methods for the user interface of digital products are offered every year. Plans that are reviewed and finalized based on updated statistics from large companies. I’m sure you’ve gone to old government websites many times to choose a university unit or online insurance services. This a clear and somewhat extreme example of the design expiration date of these old and failed government websites.
The new designs convey a feeling of being up-to-date to the user who is familiar with the Internet. If this feeling is not transferred to the user, like the old cars that are removed from people’s minds, the brand based on old principles will also discourage the user.
When a standard doesn’t work
The basics of measuring the performance of digital products are like pain in the human body. Metrics show whether your product is working properly at a certain stage or a certain point. You may think that the product not working at that point is due to the design and the redesign process should start.
But I suggest you wait a bit. By further examining criteria such as user exit from product pages or conversion rate, you can understand that the problem is the design of the entire product, the design of a specific part, or the design is not a problem at all, and the click rate increases just by changing a text.
When it’s time for a brand update
Most of the time, any redesign of the brand and logo requires the redesign of the product in terms of aesthetics. Usually, the simplest type of redesign is for this reason, because there is no need for fundamental changes in the structure of the products, and the goal is only to beautify the website or application design space.
Think of the old and new Instagram logos. It is fair to conclude that Instagram could not succeed with the new logo and that old product, and its redesign was needed based on beauty.
When the user starts working
Many times, the owners and specialists of a company do not notice the bad performance of the product in terms of user experience. The product needs redesign in different parts and no one cares. At this stage, the user who has direct experience using the product and understands the personality of your brand gets to work and introduces you to the problem of the product in a certain section with the negative feedback he sends you.
A negative user review is a free and simple warning that drives any product to improve.
By redesigning the product based on users’ opinions, you can change the negative experience for them into a positive experience and a sense of importance.
What are the stages of product redesign from scratch?
Suppose that after reviewing a certain product, we realized that the product needs to be redesigned. I will be with you step by step until the work is completed.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a total or partial redesign. If you have concluded that you need to redesign the site or app, you may not need to go through all the steps, but the work is the same.
Write the goals and hypotheses of the plan
Every design has goals. This clichéd sentence is the main basis for starting the redesign work. This is why mastering these goals can help improve the redesign process. To get started, start by outlining the goals of the redesign. Then go to research and analysis of statistics and feedback to check user problems. It is better to monitor the statistics and information over some time and then proceed to formulate the redesign goals again.
I suggest that you record the goals, hypotheses, and outcome of the redesign. You can describe your list with the following three headings.
- We believe that…: (goals)
- So if we…: (practical hypotheses)
- As a result, we will see…: (the result of the redesign)
In each mentioned section, we write a description of the redesign process, now we have created the product redesign document.
Take the redesigned document to the brainstorming session
Once we have written down the objectives and hypotheses of the product redesign, it is time to share our information for practical solutions among experts in this field. In the brainstorming session, you should think about practical solutions for redesigning. This probably can’t be done in one meeting, so take your time and let the experts in UI design, programming, and user experience think it through.
Validate ideas through testing
One of the most important product redesign processes is testing practical solutions identified by users. In fact, by implementing and examining parts of the hypotheses written in the redesign document, the team’s hypotheses are rejected or confirmed, and the work becomes practical.
This test provides you with a lot of empirical and measurable evidence to make sure you change your hypotheses or fully implement them.
In the process of testing the design, the team’s hypotheses may be confirmed or rejected, it is very important that the process of reviewing the data after the test is free from any bias to be sure of the complete confirmation of the issue.
Implement approved plans
Now that you have tested hypotheses and actionable information, it’s time to complete the designs. Before starting the implementation, it is very important to have a detailed and collaborative design system. Shared in the sense that plans are reviewed and implemented jointly between the programming and design teams. Each team has specific points of view that can be improved by using a common platform between them, such as Figma.
What are the stages of partial product redesign?
If you plan to re-implement a few sections instead of changing the entire site and product design, your approach will be slightly different.
Identify and define problems
The first step is to identify the problems you are trying to solve. To do this, you need to do some research. The best way to identify the problem is through intuitive evaluation, user experience testing, and user interviews.
Prioritize problems for handling
Now it’s time to prioritize identified problems based on the severity of user impact, metrics, and cost. First, do the problems that require little money and time, and then go to the effective problems.