A website redesign project is crucial to a company’s long-term digital marketing strategy. It is a large-scale undertaking that requires major investments in time, budget, and personnel. Whether the project is sparked by an urgent need to transition to the latest tech stack or a calculated rebranding effort, creating a comprehensive website redesign project plan is vital for success. Such a plan is a comprehensive document, detailing the roadmap for the website’s transformation. It defines the project’s objectives, timeline, scope, budget, tasks, and key deliverables.
Here, we will outline a systematic framework for creating a project plan for redesigning websites. This framework will provide a strong foundation for creating your website redesign roadmap in the future. But first, let us understand why creating a well-structured project plan is so important.
The Importance of Creating a Website Redesign Project Plan
A detailed redesign project plan will streamline the redesign process by clearly outlining tasks, project requirements, and timelines. It minimizes wasted time/effort, ensuring that all project resources (time, money, and personnel) are optimally allocated and that all deadlines are met consistently. Integration of key performance indicators (KPIs) within the website redesign roadmap will also allow you to measure success. 
Data-based project objectives and clearly defined metrics will allow you to identify key areas for improvement in your website. You can track your design team’s progress in addressing those areas during the redesign process. At the end of the project, the metrics you mentioned in your plan will be used to demonstrate the project’s overall ROI accurately. A well-defined project plan will foster open communication and collaboration among all stakeholders.
By following a shared website redesign roadmap, stakeholders will remain on the same page on project goals, expectations, and progress, minimizing the risk of confusion and misunderstanding. More importantly, a professional-grade project plan will anticipate potential roadblocks and allow for the creation of contingency plans and risk mitigation strategies, minimizing the risk of the project totally falling apart mid-stage.
Starting a Website Redesign Project Plan
Before you start planning, you need to understand why website redesign is important and how exactly it can help your business. Has your company’s brand identity evolved, calling for a total website redesign to reflect those changes? Does your current website suffer from outdated technologies that hamper user experience? Are conversions on the site falling short? Does your website need to reach new audiences? Answer these questions to identify the main reasons why getting a redesign will be worth the effort. Then, take the following steps:
12 Steps to Create Website Redesign Project Plan
Create Your Design Team
Once it’s decided that getting a redesign is inevitable, create a dedicated task force responsible for supervising the project’s trajectory. Try to get as many experts and departments involved in the project, especially:
Marketing: Provides insights into target audiences, creates messaging strategies, and establishes user experience (UX) best practices.IT: Contributes expertise on content delivery network (CDN) optimization, security considerations, and the overall technical feasibility of the project.Sales: Offers important viewpoints on user preferences, lead generation efforts, and building effective conversion funnels.
Once the team is set up, it is time to assign responsibilities. Most start-ups, lean teams, and major brands employ the DARCI project management framework to set clear expectations for each team member:
Decider: Those who’ll make final decisions on the project’s overall direction.Accountable: Those who’ll be held responsible for the project’s success.Responsible: Members of the team will be given specific project tasks that they’ll be solely responsible for.Consulted: Those who’ll provide their expert inputs during the project.Informed: Those who’ll be kept up-to-date on project progress.
Whether you are designing in-house or working with a third-party agency, make sure to give the website design specialists leading roles in your project management framework. They should have a major say in the final design.
Clarify Business Objectives
Clearly define what business results you want to achieve from the redesign. Avoid ambiguous statements like “increase brand popularity”. Instead, set clear objectives like “increase qualified leads captured through website form signups by 20% within Q2”. Set objectives that are realistic and achievable within the project’s defined constraints. Establish deadlines for achieving each objective. Consider factors like budget, resources, and technical feasibility while setting these goals and establish quantifiable metrics (for example, page views, conversion rates, etc.) to track the project’s progress down the line.
Comprehensively Audit Your Current Website
Throughout the redesign process, you will have to make countless decisions. To make those decisions, you must have a thorough data-based understanding of your current site. Performing a comprehensive website audit will give you that understanding. The scale/scope of your audit will depend on your project’s business objectives. But, it should cover at least these four crucial areas:
Collect feedback from all project stakeholders before and during the audit. Ask them how they want the new website to be presented externally. ask your company’s in-house marketing and sales teams how they want the site to function internally.
Assess Competition to Identify Best Practices and UX Benchmarks
Website redesigns often benefit from external inspiration. Analyze how your competitors approach content creation, imagery, color palettes, and typographic choices. Assess how competing websites evoke specific emotions in users and elicit desired responses. Identify all the successful communication strategies these websites employ to effectively narrate their brand story. Seek inspiration beyond direct competitors as well. Draw inspiration from websites in different industries to find ways to differentiate your redesigned website within its competitive landscape.
Set a Realistic Budget
What is a ‘realistic’ budget for a website redesign project? The answer to this question will depend on the scope of the project, the size of your organization, and how much financial resources are at play. Here’s a basic framework outlining the key budgetary considerations for companies of varying sizes:
Start-Ups and Small Firms:
View the website as a long-term investment in brand equity. Focus on attaining specific KPIs like lead generation or sales conversion. If there are major budgetary constraints, prioritize improving the crucial elements of your website like the homepage, the sales pages, etc.
Medium-Sized Businesses:
Focus on making strategic web design investments that deliver long-term value. For example, upgrading your front-end framework or CMS can make your marketing team way more effective in the long run.
Large Enterprises:
If you are a large-scale firm with plenty of resources, your web redesign project should cover everything from branding to technology to content. Invest in a modern tech stack, and a strong design system, and integrate the latest tools, APIs, and business systems to optimize your website’s performance and long-term scalability.
An easy way to create a realistic budget is to list all potential expenditures and allocate funds strategically.
Choose Your Tech Stack
The technology stack (tech stack) you choose to work with will impact your website’s day-to-day performance, scalability, ease of management, and overall user experience (UX). To make a proper decision, consider the following factors:
Cost: Does the tech stack align with your existing budget?Scalability: Can the tech stack meet your projected growth plans and adapt alongside your evolving business needs?Security: Will the chosen technologies come with robust security measures?Community: Does the tech stack have a strong community of users, developers, and designers offering helpful support resources?
Here is a list of the main components of a modern website redesign tech stack:
Core Technologies
Content Management System (Shopify, WordPress, etc.)Front-End Framework (React.js, Angular, etc.)Back-End Framework (Ruby on Rails, Django, Express.js)
Supporting Technologies
Database (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL)Cloud Hosting Platform (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure)Version Control System (VCS) (e.g., Git)
Performance Optimization Tools
Security Measures (SSLs, Firewalls)Content Delivery Network (CDN)Analytics Tools (e.g., Google Analytics)Marketing Automation ToolsAPI Integrations
By carefully selecting and integrating these components, you can establish a reliable tech stack that future-proofs your website.
Conduct User Research
To create a website that resonates with your intended users, your design team needs to have a deep understanding of their needs, behaviors, and the nature of their online interactions. To effectively implement this audience-centric approach, conduct the following types of user research:
Quantitative and Qualitative Research:
Capture direct user feedback through one-on-one interviews, surveys, feedback forms, etc. Ask existing users about their pain points and preferences regarding the site’s design, functionalities, and content.
Market Analysis:
Research industry trends, analyze competitor websites, and identify potential areas for differentiation.
Create Buyer Personas:
Create comprehensive buyer personas based on user behavior patterns, online habits, the challenges faced by users while interacting with the website, and the types of solutions users actively seek.
Decision-Making Process:
Identify the key factors that influence the purchasing decisions of your existing user base. Tailor the website’s IA, navigation, content, and UX design accordingly.
User Behavior Analysis:
Use web analytics tools to gain deeper insights into user behavior on your existing site. Analyze metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and time spent on each webpage to understand their engagement patterns. Create heatmaps to visualize user interaction patterns on each webpage, identifying areas of high/low engagement.
User Journeys:
Map out the different journeys that different user groups make to understand the difficulties they may face while accomplishing desired tasks.
By employing a combination of these user research methods, you will be in a better position to create a user-centered web design that delivers engaging user experiences.
Finalize the Website Layout
Now, it is time to finalize your website’s layout and all key design elements within it. Choose between an F, Z, single-column, multi-column, or asymmetrical website layout, depending on your target audience’s preferences. Then, finalize how the following key design elements will be placed within the layout:
Information Architecture (IA)
Design a user-friendly navigation system that allows visitors to effortlessly find the information they seek.Employ visual cues and whitespace to guide users through the content.Implement a logical hierarchy with clear labeling for menu items.Strategically prioritize content based on user needs and business goals.Place high-value content and CTAs in prominent locations for optimal viewing and engagement.Perform user testing to refine the navigation structure.
Visual Hierarchy
Make sure the site’s visual design elements (typography, color combos, imagery) align with the brand identity you have established.Make sure the fonts you select are legible across devices/screen sizes.Use font pairings that enhance readability.Select a color scheme that suits the overall brand aesthetic.Prioritize accessibility by giving every piece of content clear headings and sufficient color contrast
User Testing
Perform user testing to make sure the design decisions you have made cater to target user needs.
Explore various visual styles and layouts. Develop several design mockups to see which styles resonate with target users and stakeholders the most.
Take Inventory of Your Content
Create a comprehensive inventory of all webpages, blog posts, downloadable assets, multimedia content, and other existing website content. Then, use web analytics tools to evaluate their performance. Analyze metrics like organic traffic, average on-page time, user engagement, etc. to identify high-performing content.
Also, conduct a thorough SEO audit to evaluate all website content for technical SEO issues (keyword optimization, broken links, site speed) using tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. Based on the content and SEO audits, categorize all existing content on the site as follows:
MigrateReviseArchiveDelete
Update and migrate all high-performing content to the redesigned website. Then, create a strategy for creating new content. Identify potential opportunities in the current content landscape by analyzing competing sites and conducting targeted keyword research.
Finalize Brand Guidelines
Take stock of all existing brand elements on the site. Review the logo design, color palette, typography, and overall visual style. Clarify what types of updates or revisions these elements need. If you are considering taking a new visual direction, make sure it is aligned with your brand’s current market position and your desired brand perception in the market. Document the final design decisions for the brand (logo usage, brand colors, typography requirements, etc.) and then share this document with all team members.
Map New Site Architecture
Establish a clear hierarchical structure for your redesigned site with the homepage at the top. Main categories branching out from the homepage should include all broad topic areas that are relevant to your brand and target audience. Subdivide these main categories into logical subcategories to organize content in an ‘easy-to-discover’ way.
Make sure the site’s IA is flexible enough to accommodate new content sections, and product lines, and adapt to evolving user needs. The IA should be packed with target keywords relevant to your audience. Strategically embed high-value, keyword-optimized content within all sections of the IA to ensure they are easily discoverable by both users and search engines.
Follow Evergreen Design Principles
While incorporating trendy design elements can add visual interest to your site, focusing solely on trends can lead to a web design that feels dated in 2 to 3 years. To ensure that does not happen, strictly follow the established principles that professional providers of website redesign follow:
User-Centric Design: Focus on user needs and goals; design a clear and user-friendly navigation system that makes it easy for them to accomplish their goals.Accessibility: Adhere to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure your website is accessible to users with disabilities.Visual Consistency: Develop a visual style guide and apply it consistently across all web pages and digital marketing materials.Hierarchy and Heuristics: Use visual hierarchy to guide users through the content; make key pieces of information stand out visually for efficient information processing.Mobile-First Design: Design the website with a responsive layout. All buttons, forms, media, and other interactive design elements should be optimized for touchscreens and fast loading.Scalability and Maintainability: Design the site with a modular approach so that you can easily integrate new content sections or website functionalities in the future.
By applying these core website design principles to your redesign project, you will create a website that’s not only aesthetically pleasing but also user-friendly, optimized for high performance, and future-proof.
Pre-Launch and Post-Launch Tasks
Right before and after your website redesign project begins, you will have to complete a series of responsibilities. Learn about these responsibilities in advance so that all the different phases of the redesign go smoothly:
Use this comprehensive website redesign project plan as a starting point to launch your redesign roadmap. For additional resources and in-depth guidance on the website redesign process, contact the experienced web design professionals at Design Studio now! If you’re looking for expert assistance, our website redesign specialists are here to help you transform your site effectively. Reach out to us today to get started on your project!
Website Redesign Project Plan Steps in 2024 was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
