3 Reasons Why You May Want A Website Redesign Without Getting A Makeover

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kentuckiana - Design Spotlight

It isn't rare for us to find ourselves working on a website for someone and changing nothing but the backend of the site, whether it be a formatting issue, integration problem, or in most cases, lack of mobile-responsiveness. This was the case with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kentuckiana (and for the sake of my sanity, I'll be calling them RMHCK on this post).

Today I jumped onto the ole' Internet Archive and loaded up RMHCK's site last from month and compared it to what it looks like now, only a few days after we relaunched it. From my Macbook Pro, I had trouble spotting much of a difference when comparing them. I never did superb with those Spot the Difference games though, so if you want to do a peer-review, try to be graceful with your objections. The differences on my iPhone however... well, that was a totally different story. It's immediately apparent the changes we made. There are several reasons why you may want to have your site internally redesigned without having changes made to the look of the site, and I'd like to look into several of those reasons while analyzing RMHCK's recent relaunch.

(If you're interested in trying the site out and comparing it yourself, you can see the old version on the fabulous and often under-appreciated Wayback Machine. Use a quarter-wide-screen sized window on Chrome to get an idea of how the recent launch flows on mobile-- or load it on your phone, iPad, tablet, phablet, or whatever new mobile device you may have found, for more a more accurate depiction.)

1. Your Current Site Just Works:

As much as we love doing full redesigns here at TCS, I want to take advantage of this launch to explain why it is totally okay to simply fix your website internally, without touching the external appearance. We understand if your current website just works and you are anxious about updating the appearance to match current trends. We all know of the rebranding horror stories and while your website isn't exactly your brand, it does represent your brand, and if you feel that updating it too drastically could make you the next Tropicana, we can help you either make a slow conversion, a smart update or an internal redesign-- giving it the latest in methods, code and mobile optimization.

2. You Just Redesigned Your Site:

So you just invested buko bucks in a redesign a couple years ago, and it looks great-- maybe not 2015 great-- but it's definitely not Space Jam. All it's lacking is the mobile market advantage. The money isn't there, or the time, budget or milestone, but you understand the necessity of being there for the mobile world and can't stretch much further than that in updating. We get it, and we've worked with businesses like yours before.

3. You're Waiting For (x) Reason Before Giving It A Facelift:

A full redesign is in next years budget, or is an incentive to reach a new sales goal, or is in a long planning process or will be done internally or any number of the hundreds of reasons that one may need to hold out and wait on changing up their online presents. It's essential to get into the mobile world yesterday. Last week actually. No, two years ago. If for whatever reason you are holding off a complete redesign, it's not necessary to continue holding off on making the site mobile responsive. There isn't a good reason to wait. Every day more and more people use their phone primarily for web browsing. Currently, more internet browsing is done on mobile than desktop and more people have a mobile device than those that have desktops.

But mobile optimization isn't an iPhone that you can get every four years or if you're a crazy and eccentric, every year. Phones are using the internet and they aren't going to stop. It wouldn't be a far-cry to suggest that in the near future so many people will be using mobile devices that there won't be such a thing as Mobile-Optimization, but rather just Desktop-Optimization. That'll be crazy, but it's definitely an inevitable probability. Ronald McDonald is a powerful and effective charity. Their website isn't 2015, but that didn't stop them because next year will be 2016 and there will be new trends and we will have new reasons to sell newer websites. Don't let the fear of having to keep up stop you from entering the race.

Thanks again for following today's Web Design Spotlight! If you haven't already, go ahead and click around on Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kentuckiana website. We would love to hear your thoughts on it! I'll be back next week with another of our recent launches, so be sure to check in for that.

Also, be sure to check out my related posts on Louisville Labor Management, Spacia, West Coast Land Conservancy, Hurstbourne Christian Church, Louisville Label, FSG, Open Door Ministries, Spindletop Draperies, Unified Technologies, Ben Woodward, Build Louisville, Toadvine Enterprises, and Louisville Switching.