When it comes designing a new website, we at Well Done Marketing have the benefit of being familiar with how things work. User interface and graphic design are processes we’re completely comfortable with because we’ve used them over and over and we’ve seen the results.
But for our clients, those same processes often seem opaque. They have trust that all good things are happening—and that’s no small thing. With so many technical factors and people and purposes to keep in mind, making any big change within an organization—even redesigning a website everyone’s embarrassed of—is a challenge.
We get it. Right now we’re in the process of moving to a new office space. We don’t know much about gutting and reconstructing physical space. We don’t know much about how big our new kitchen should be. We don’t know anything about carpet or what brand of paint to use. Not to mention state plumbing and electrical codes and approval procedures.
There’s a lot going on that we can’t touch because we don’t know how; even though we all desperately want to help install drywall, we can’t. And the lack on complete control is unnerving.
Fortunately, we hired a contractor and an interior designer to help guide us through the process. People we respect and trust, which means we don’t have to panic over every detail. (Which, by the way, is awesome—and is the whole point of hiring people who know what they’re doing, anyway.)
We also, in a lot of ways, handed the project over to our internal Director of Operations, Mindy Ford. As the single point of contact, Mindy makes sure the right people are asked the right questions, which prevents our 16-person-and-counting team from gumming up the whole thing. Even though all 16 of us want to be in the critical path of all the cool stuff going on, we know we can’t be because 16 of us are never going to unanimously agree on accent colors.
Which is not to say we’re not important to the process. We have to bring our needs and our tastes to bear on our office design, just as our clients have to judge our websites against their own criteria. Ultimately, we’re the ones who have to work in our offices, and you have to live with the look and the functionality of your website. You gotta trust your team, but you gotta be the boss.
So, when we say we understand what a challenge a site redesign can be, we really mean it. We know that a website isn’t just a website: it’s a reflection of your brand, your products and services, your contribution to the world. Same as our new office space. We’re fortunate to have found professionals we trust to help us develop it—and we’re smart enough to know when to let them do their jobs. If you’re looking to redo your website, we recommend the same approach to you.