[Sigia-l] Avoiding alienating existing users upon redesign

[Samantha Bailey]

I participated in a major redesign a couple years ago; the situation you
describe is a hard one as it is virtually impossible to avoid alienating
some users--people resist change, even when the usability tests show that
the design is improved. The two things I would advise (and would have done
differently "had I known then") would be:

1) make sure that stakeholders and business folks have been warned about
attrition and alienation after a redesign so that they don't panic. Our
satisfaction scores plummeted and we had a big bounce in calls to the call
center for about 2-3 weeks after the redesign--and it took a good 6-8 weeks
for our metrics to rebound. But then they picked up dramatically--once
people got used to the new design they reported liking it much better.
Because our stakeholders internally weren't well prepared for the dip,
though, we had to really work to keep folks from panicking and there were
calls to revert to some of our old conventions.

2) Announce the redesign plans on the homepage a couple weeks prior and give
a short tour demonstrating new features. I don't know if this really works
or not, but we decided not to do this because I really didn't think it was
necessary and after launch I regretted that we hadn't given our regular user
base some warning in case that would have helped reduce some of the anxiety.

Our redesign experience overall was really positive--and the site has been
very successful despite what felt like a bumpy start.

Good luck!


Samantha Bailey
samantha at baileysorts.com | http://baileysorts.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Lash" <jeff at jefflash.com>
To: "SIGIA" <sigia-l at asis.org>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 8:54 PM
Subject: [Sigia-l] Avoiding alienating existing users upon redesign


> How can a site implement a significant redesign without alienating
existing
> users?
>
> A large subscription-based site has a significant number of users, many of
> whom have been paying customers for several years without any major design
> changes. Though the site is successful, there are several significant
> usability issues that need to be addressed, as well as changes from the
> business perspective. How can we successfully improve the site and expand
> our user base while keeping our current users (who are notoriously fickle
> about even the smallest of changes)?
>
> I'm aware of the arguments against a major relaunch
> --> http://www.uie.com/Articles/quiet_death_of_relaunch.htm
> and will certainly make the case for that, but assuming there is going to
be
> a major re-launch, how can it be done?
>
> I would especially appreciate any publicly-available articles, case
studies,
> or similar materials that deal with this issue, so that I may pass them on
> to others working on the project. Specifically, if there is a list of what
> things can be done
> - before the redesign
> - during the redesign
> - after the redesign
> to make the impact as minimal as possible, that would be excellent.
(Things
> like beta testing to a random sample, announcements that a change is
coming,
> new-site tour, etc...)
>
> Good resources I've already found:
> --> http://tinyurl.com/34bvj (Computerworld.com article)
> -->
http://www.ezrc.hud.gov/library/bookshelf15/redesigningexistingsite.cfm
>
> Any others?
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff
> --
> http://jefflash.com
>
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