Three surprising reasons why most website and mobile app redesigns fail
Over the years, a great deal of businesses have sought to revitalize their brand, grow their user base, and increase conversions by redesigning the entire website or app experience. But is a complete redesign really necessary?
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The sad reality is that for a number of businesses, redesigns have been a costly mistake, leading to lowered conversions, higher bounce rates, less engagement, and droves of frustrated users. And worse yet, many are often left wondering what exactly went wrong.
For example, take a look at Instagram’s recent attempt to redesign their app experience.
In 2018, Instagram rolled out a complete redesign of their app that was met with widespread user backlash. The end result? They canned the redesign and rolled back their efforts.
Snapchat suffered a similar fate. Their very own user base blasted the company’s attempt to overhaul the app with new features. As it turns out, Snapchat’s users complained that the new features were difficult to use — so much so that they even launched a petition. More than 1.2 million users shared their frustration. Thankfully, Snapchat responded by removing the new features.
The truth is, most redesigns are a complete waste of time and effort. In many cases, they perform worse than the design that preceded it.
But why does this happen?
Let’s take a deeper dive into the most cited reasons why even the most attractive redesigns become futile attempts.
Reason #1: Redesigns don’t tend to address the underlying issues your users are facing.
Oftentimes, redesigns don’t solve a real problem — they start with a desire for “newness” and cosmetic changes, with the hope that the redesign will have customers beating down your door. Unfortunately, this is a rare occurrence.
Don’t succumb to the latest trends and shiny objects. Instead, start with setting your sights on the problems your current users encounter. But to do that, you’ll have to do your homework… lots of it.
Luckily, there are a number of tools and methodologies that can help you shed light on problem areas to gather insights:
- Perform a heuristic analysis to identify lackluster copy, friction points, and potentially confusing design elements
- Conduct a technical audit to uncover bugs, errors, and any technical issues that might have been missed
- Review your web or app analytics to identify metrics that seem problematic and pinpoint where users are dropping out of the funnel
- Leverage mouse tracking and session recordings to learn how users browse and interact with your user interface in real-time
- Run heat maps and scroll maps to view user click and scroll behavior
- Set up qualitative and quantitative user tests to introduce potential design treatments and new features
- Launch user feedback polls and post-purchase surveys to gauge how your users feel, what they want or need, and what they don’t like.
- Analyze your competitors’ user experience to see what your competitors are doing, which can help fuel ideas for experimentation
If you’re interested in digging deeper and want to learn how to execute these, the following article touches on each of these methods and how you can use them to your advantage.
Reason #2: Redesigns generally change too many variables.
If you’ve changed the navigation, design elements and copy all at once, how will you ever know what has impacted your website’s performance?
If you’re trying to generate leads and you discover that inbound leads have decreased by 50%, what caused the decline?
… is the navigation more difficult to use?
… is it confusing or lackluster copy?
… are user interface elements cluttered, confusing, or difficult to use?
… is there a disconnect between the copy and the imagery that supports the copy?
… is the typography too small or hard to read?
… are there bugs or usability issues with the new design that yet to be uncovered?
With a full-fledged redesign, it’s difficult to cite what exactly makes the new experience better or worse for your users.
Does this mean you should never consider a redesign?
Absolutely not. It’s just that a much better approach exists today.
Introducing the Evolutionary Site Redesign.
Simply put, an evolutionary site redesign involves making small iterations and design tweaks gradually and in a measurable way.
And the clear benefit of using such an approach? You’ll know exactly what changes are influencing user behavior, and just how much of an impact these design and copy tweaks have.
If this approach interests you, CRO expert Chris Goward has written a great introduction to the Evolutionary Site Redesign process:
Reason #3: Redesigns may frustrate your power users.
Your best customers are those power users that have ingrained your product, service, or app into their daily routine. These users possess intimate knowledge of your most valuable features and make regular use of them.
These users that may have valuable suggestions for how you can improve your tool to better solve their biggest problems. Unfortunately, when you conduct an abrupt redesign, this can have an negative impact on these users — especially if the UI patterns have changed drastically.
You may find that these users have trouble adapting to your new interface, because they’ve become so accustomed to the design that came before it. When met with a new, unfamiliar process and a greater learning curve, many become frustrated.
The take home message here? Don’t piss off your best customers! Instead, tap into their minds and use their feedback to your advantage.
Closing Thoughts
While flipping the entire look and feel of your website or app seems like the obvious solution to your woes, there’s a good chance you’ll find that it has an opposite (and often disastrous) effect on your website conversions.
Instead, invest that time peeling back the layers to uncover the biggest obstacles that stand in the way of your users. Once you have identified these problems, use these findings to make small, incremental changes that can be measured.