🪴 Designer’s Guide To Redesign, Step-By-Step. Useful guidelines on when and how to redesign, how to avoid pitfalls and how to make users fall in love with the new design ↓

🚫 Avoid big-bang redesigns unless absolutely necessary.
✅ Big improvements come from cleaning up, not building up.
✅ Always prefer incremental changes over a major overhaul.
✅ Build on top of already existing usage/behavior patterns.
✅ Keep the old way of working first, and transition slowly.

🚫 Don't start from scratch: deconstruct what you have.
✅ Build a shared understanding of what your goals are.
✅ Look for patterns/flows that users rely on frequently.
✅ Map them in the new design to avoid breaking changes.
✅ Give an option to try a new design, restore the old one.

🚫 Don’t pack a lot of sudden changes in all at once.
✅ Users accept changes if they see value in them.
✅ Highlight and explain changes to returning users.
✅ Explain to users how the change actually helps them.
✅ Prepare your customer service way ahead of time.

Personally, I always try to avoid redesign projects whenever possible. They are extremely costly, complex and time-consuming ventures — and too often without valuable outcome for end users. Instead, we need to seek where we can increase the value and apply our design efforts to that area.

As Jared Spool argues, we often think that users don’t like change. Yet users go through small and big changes all day long. What users don’t like are breaking changes. Sudden interruptions. Blockers. Bad surprises. Changes that they don’t understand and can’t see any value in. That’s what we need to avoid.

You might not need a redesign. You might need to revamp email newsletters. Or improve your product pages. Or optimize for repeat business. Or address a new market. Or better cater to older audiences. Or just invest in a better search. These are typically much more urgent issues that everybody will benefit from.

But if you do, break up changes in small increments and roll out gradually. But: don't ask for opinions. Ask if people in the room agree with the direction the new design is taking, and if not, why not. Good redesigns are evolutions, not revolutions. Refine slowly as you go, and you’ll be surprised that users might not even notice that you’ve redesigned at all.

Useful resources:

How To Redesign, A Step-By-Step Guide, by Taras Bakusevych
https://lnkd.in/dgKeQGn7

Users Don’t Hate Change, But Our Design Choices, by Jared Spool
https://lnkd.in/eXmQBGR2

How to Redesign, The Right Way, by Paul Boag
https://lnkd.in/eGbYYiCS

How To Run A UX Redesign Workshop, by Sarah Jee Watson
https://lnkd.in/eGi2uXrV

Designer’s Guide To Redesign, Step-By-Step, by yours truly
https://lnkd.in/e8fXxCdV

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