Design and Redesign Designers will take on one of two types of projects: a new design or a redesign. Each problem will have its own set of objectives, but in many cases, the redesign will offer the creative team a wealth of existing material for assessment. However, a new design will require more preliminary research and discovery to arrive at written content, information architecture, and graphic solutions. In both cases, performing a SWOT analysis will help evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. By listing items related to each category, a designer can begin to shape creative directions and opportunities using some or all of the results. It is also crucial to identify who will be accountable for the plan, project, actions, and goals necessary to reach the intended purpose. Marion Dosher, Dr. Otis Benepe, Albert Humphrey, Robert Stewart, and Birger Lie developed this method of strategic planning from 1960 to 1970 at the Stanford Research Institute. A number of Fortune 500 companies funded the research to understand why existing planning did not work as intended. Questions to ask during a design or redesign: What is the intended voice? What is the received voice? Users may understand things differently than the client's intended voice. What is the existing communication strategy? Who is the intended audience? What is being sold or delivered? How and where will people interact with the brand, product, or service? Who is the competition? How are they different? What do the existing visuals look and feel like? What types of visual assets exist? Photographic, illustrative, or diagrammatic? How do they contribute to the voice? Do typographic standards exist, or must they be invented? Does the written or visual content exist elsewhere? In print? Social media? Why will people come to the website? What will get people back again and again? Questions to ask during a redesign: Is the navigation easy to follow? Is the message clearly communicated? How do the graphics benefit the site both for content and for navigation? Were you able to navigate through the site without getting lost? How did the site engage the user, and was this action appropriate to the message? What was the most interesting aspect of this site? What brand elements must remain in place? What brand elements, or other entities, can get replaced? Excerpted from The Graphic Designer's Electronic-Media Manual: How to Apply Visual Design Principles to Engage Users on Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile Websites by Jason Tselentis All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
