Website Redesign: A balancing act between functional and fancy.

A static website with no interactive elements and dull, unchanging content can give a lackluster impression of your brand. But a site with too many font styles, colors and photos vying for attention will confuse and frustrate your visitor. For a website to be successful, there needs to be a deliberate relationship between form and function.

It’s not about you. It’s about them.
We’ve spent hours drafting redesigns for sites appealing to opinions of CEOs, marketing directors and the like. No big deal, that’s our job.

When the site starts getting too specific to one person’s taste, though, it’s time to reel it back in. Often the needs of the consumer get ignored when redesigning the site to look “cool” or “pretty.” The addition of too many trendy features can disrupt the delicate balance between functional and fancy.

While making an impression with great visuals is important, you need to ensure users won’t get frustrated with fancy features and complex organization. If your site isn’t easily navigated, your content won’t easily be found, and visitors will go elsewhere.

Don’t frustrate your members.
Remember that the bulk of your site’s repeat visitors will be your members. The home page that wows them the first time with animation, taking several clicks to get to your content -- will quickly turn annoying to sit through while your page loads.

Visitors come to your site to fulfill a banking need, not to consume art. The quickest and easiest way to communicate that you can help is the best design for you. Accomplish this by putting yourself in their mind:

• What do they need? What words would they use in a search for information about this?
• How will you help them solve their problem?
• What are other factors affecting their decision? For a new bank, on a loan product, on a mortgage?
• How would they accomplish this task in one of your branches? For example, how would they transfer money between accounts? It should be easier to accomplish online!

If you approach your website redesign with usability as your first goal, you can’t lose. Get that right before adding in the visuals. Don’t introduce features just because they’re trendy, especially if they don’t enhance usability. If your users can complete their task with minimal questions and frustrations, your website is sure to impress visitors and increase conversions.

What more could you ask for?